Picnic at the Montreal Temple

This was a while ago now, within our first weeks in Montreal. After church and afternoon naps we headed out to the Montreal Temple to have a picnic and a little family home evening lesson. It was so great. I think we'd like to make a habit of doing this a little more often. 

I love living so close to a temple. And I love how much a little outing like this can help us all feel a little bit more together and happy.

Thanksgiving 2013

After the adventures that we have had lately I nearly suggested that we forgo Thanksgiving this year. We still aren't unpacked (in large part because we have nowhere to unpack it to as we very slowly accumulate the necessary furniture - and funds for the furniture). And despite that little fact, of not being unpacked, life is still going full steam ahead. Jason has longer work hours than we have ever known and a drastically longer commute. It feels like we have been tossed into the world of Open Houses to find a school for kindergarten for Atticus. And while all I want to do is get this house clean (I'm washing the floors every night to try to get 70+ years of grime off of it..) and organized I have two little ones who require my attention much more than those full cardboard boxes and dirty floors. The kids have been aching for consistent schedules. In fact, I think we all have been. 

When it got right down to it I realized that we needed to be a whole lot better at saying 'no' to all the good things to make room for the 'best' things. There are so many things to do here on top of all the business of settling in that I don't think any of us have had our footing. And the thought that a little dose of Thanksgiving traditions and an extra dose of down time as family took over the thought of foregoing it all together. Afterall, this would be the first year that we would celebrate Thanksgiving IN Canada as a family. That's a pretty big event. 

And while it is easy for us to get caught up in the things that call us the loudest, Thanksgiving weekend brought us all back in to the core of our little family. We have a lot to do to get settled in here, but we also have so much to be grateful for and I am glad that we set apart a day to celebrate that as a family. It was hard to say 'no' to plenty of things that came up that weekend but as we simplified our schedule and focused on what mattered most everything was enjoyed so much more. 

For example; Sunday left us with two tired kiddos who had loooong passed the tired point but bedtime was still a couple hours away. We sat down and did a special Thanksgiving FHE lesson and then filled up our Thanksgiving Tree and I was pleasantly reminded of the simple yet powerful ability of spending focused family time together. In nearly no time at all our tree went from this:

To this:

I loved hearing some of the answers that the kids came up with; it gave us little insights as to what kind of things they see in the world and enjoy the most. 

And I loved the family picture that Atticus drew for us standing under the tree. 

We probably look a little interesting and I was a little puzzled when Atticus was drawing the picture but I waited until he was done to ask him to explain the picture for me. He had a huge smile on his face as he drew his masterpiece. It turns out that our little boy, who is beyond excited for his very first official Halloween, drew us all in Halloween costumes. Atticus and Milayla are dressed as squirrels (they love squirrels), I am wearing a funny hat (which was cute because when I took Atticus shopping for his Halloween costume we tried on funny hats together) and Jason has been electrocuted. Well, we're all a little quirky, but we're smiling and happy (even if we've just been electrocuted) :). 

Monday morning kicked off with Atticus running and jumping on our bed saying "It's THANKSGIVING!!!!". I think he was pretty disappointed when he found out that thanksgiving breakfast was just muesli but as things started picking up in the kitchen for dinner, he got pretty excited.  Looking back on how the day played out, I am kicking myself that I hadn't recruited the kids to help out more in the kitchen. They were both itching to help however they could so while I was blending up the pie filling they made their own little Thanksgiving dinner in the play kitchen and brought it to their table in the kitchen. Cutest. moment. to date. 

Milayla wouldn't let me get a picture of her face while she was "cooking" in her kitchen but I got some cute ones of her helping out with some real cooking/baking later. 

Our Thanksgiving Feast - delish! :

The kids did help me make the biscuits which they were over the moon about. Milayla helped measure and mix the ingredients. I cannot get over the cuteness of this girl. She oozes so much personality, sweetness and determination. 

Milayla has an incredibly beautiful smile where her entire face completely lights up. It is very special. Unfortunately, it is very hard to capture on camera. If I try to ask her to smile for the camera she very cutely squints her eyes and gives me various expressions with her face. Sometimes it comes out looking like a smile. Sometimes not. This is what I got this go around.

Still pretty darn cute.

After the biscuits were all mixed up, Atticus balled them, rolled them and flattened them on the pan. He is really good at following directions and always asks such great questions along the way as well. He is full of lots of questions lately and we're loving it. He's also giving me some smile sass lately too...

After the biscuits were in the oven it was time for me to start preparing the dressing which required work over the hot stove and also meant the little hands could not help. They were so sad when I told them they couldn't help with the stuffing and I am kicking myself that I didn't find some way that they could help with something in that kitchen at that moment. Milayla cried and came back every few minutes to see if it was time to help again yet so when she got to help make the whip cream later that night for dessert she was pretty stoked. And my wishing that I had the kids help with more was only heightened when the kids beamed with pride over their lightly golden and flakey biscuits that we all made as a team. Though, when they were not helping me in the kitchen they were busy helping Jason tidy our home. I love how helpful everyone is. I'm working to encourage that - I hope it works.

And once dinner was all ready to go we had some friends join us (who, funny enough, are also from Alberta). It was great to be able to share our meal with others. The kids were especially excited to be able to share their biscuits. Man, I love those kids and their big hearts!

 After dinner I recruited the kids for a game of Jenga. Jenga games are pretty short around here, though the kids are surprisingly good at it. I think their was a conspiracy to finish the game quicker to get to dessert and that awesome whip cream that Milayla helped me make.

And the day finished off with us getting to tuck those sweet little ones into bed with bedtime books, songs and cuddles. Then we went to bed early...and that is something to be grateful for.

So while there are still boxes waiting to be unpacked, and floors that never seem to get clean, my heart is filled just a bit more with the love and gratitude that is all around me in our little home. And I hope that that feeling, even just a little bit, has filled into my children's hearts as well (and Jason's too :) ).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Feeling pretty darn grateful today, and a lot lately in general. Having dinner as a family today. Sharing it with friends and filling up our Thanksgiving Tree. Planning on rounding out the day with a whole lot of togetherness so that I can snuggle up close to this family of mine that I am eternally grateful for.

Here is our Thanksgiving tree, all ready to get it's leaves.

I'll have to explain some more about the family drawing that Atticus made for us later. He is one very creative kid.

And here is a video that we really like about developing an attitude of gratitude that includes a little excerpt from our beloved prophet, President Thomas S Monson.

Enjoy. And have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Moving Part 2: Flying with Kids

The airplane ride to Canada was more exhausting than I care to remember. It started at an unruly hour with the first flight of the morning out of Bremen and we had THREE flights total. 

worst. idea. ever.

Even Milayla was a little nervous about the idea.

I love that face of hers. And the hair. A little unsure about the adventure ahead, but ready to go forward.

The boys were all smiles. I don't think they quite realized what was ahead of them.

The first flight was short. The kids had snacks and each looked through their own books. And all was fine.

The second flight was loooonng. Amsterdam to New York.

Jason and I each took one child and each child had a bag of items that I had selected specifically for them that would be complete surprises to them (as they were new items that I had purchased). The absolute best thing I bought the kids were their own sticker activity books. Those things kept the kids happily entertained until brunch service rolled around. Milayla would not get to try out brunch service though because between putting the sticker book away and the food being placed on the tray she was completely out.

After Atticus ate he wanted to snatch up Milayla's chair (that she wasn't using) and he rested his head on the small bit of my leg that Milayla wasn't laying on and he was out pretty quickly as well. It was so sweet to have those kids cuddled up to me, I loved it. They were out for a good few hours but I unfortunately had no sleep myself...

Once they were awake they were pretty happy with their sticker books and the couple other books that we had gotten for them (lift the flap atlas, i-spy and a couple story books) for the last few hours of the flight. And there were snacks; lots and lots of snacks. Then we got a light lunch on the plane, landed, and then things got rocky. 

New York Airport is CRAZY. We had a two hour lay over and we were not sure how we were going to fill that time, well, I guess we didn't need to worry about that because between unloading, picking up our bags, rechecking in, and getting to our terminal we were just shy of that two hour mark. And by the time we got to our gate the kids were DONE. We climbed aboard the tiny little city hopper headed for Montreal. The seats were split up with one seat on one side and two on the other. Brilliantly, the airline company did NOT give us two sets of two seats together. Instead they gave us two single seats and one seat of of two different sets. We were able to switch one of the single seats without a problem but the guy that was supposed to be in my row was not too pleased about it and wanted his seat. Thank heavens for the flight attendant who basically told him to leave the mother and child (us) alone and sit in the single seat. He mumbled about the leg room and sat down. The situation got even better when Milayla figured that refusing to sit in her own seat to get buckled up would ensure the plane did not take off (she was so done with flying at this point) and then it got EVEN better when we did start taking off and she looked around to see that Jason and Atticus were no where to be found (they were behind us) and she freaked out. This wasn't a little freak out. This wasn't just crying. It was a full on freak out. I cuddled her as best as I could while we were both buckled up and tried to assure her that Daddy and Atticus were behind us. Jason and Atticus tried to talk to her but she couldn't hear them. I offered food. I offered drinks. All she wanted was to be held and feel safe. The man in the single seat made a very rude remark. I probably would have slapped him if I had a free hand. But, really, all I really wanted to do was scoop that little girl up into my arms and let her know that everything was going to be all right. Let her know that she was safe. It was a very long 20 minutes until I was given the okay to unbuckle her and put her on my lap. Once on my lap she was asleep in less than 30 seconds. She slept the entire flight. She slept through customs and most of the airport. A little boy, of about 10 years old, who had been sitting in front of us asked if he could give her a hug because she was so sweet. It was cute.

At this point most of us (except for the kids and their nap on the long flight) had been up for well over 24 hours. Completely exhausted. Barely functional. And still not in the clear yet. 

We had to do extra stuff at customs since we were not just visiting, we were moving and that took a while (though that was mostly due to volume of people waiting, not the process itself as the actual process was pretty quick and pleasant). Then we shuttled to our car rental. Waited forever. And finally made it to our hotel as bed time was approaching (we had landed at 430pm and it took us nearly 4 hours to get to the hotel..). We opted for room service and didn't care what it was as long as it meant we didn't need to go anywhere. Enjoyed baths and showers. Pyjamas. And sweet potato fries. The kids barely stayed up long enough to eat. Once their heads hit the pillows, they were asleep within minutes.

And we weren't far behind them.

The next morning, we practically hit the ground running and it took a good couple of weeks for the kids to really slip into a sleeping schedule. But we are definitely all there now. Hopefully, by the time this post goes up, everything else will be into a schedule as well (like mommy school, our home, and Jason's job!). At the very least, I am so glad to see how quickly and well the kids had adjusted and how much they really seem to love it here. It is great to see. And, really, the flights were all great except for that last one. Lesson learned - try to avoid another flight schedule like that or be a bit more prepared for the completely exhausted melt downs. I love these kiddos and what great troopers they are. 

Moving Part 1: Packing up

I think we were packed up on a Thursday. I could always check, I suppose, but I don't feel like trying to track down my phone to look at the calendar right now. So, we'll go with Thursday, Thursday the 22nd of August (sounds about right to me). Though, it probably is not of very much importance anyhow as all the days leading up to us hopping on the airplane for Canada are in one very big blur. For that reason I am very grateful that I stopped to take a few photos while in the midst of that crazy blur.

I will be forever grateful that we picked a moving company who packed our things for us. With such a tight schedule I have no idea how I would have done it all on my own. I did pack quite a bit already and we sold several things, and I had to organize the lingering items that needed to be given/returned to others so that they didn't accidentally get packed. Once the movers arrived I had to give a run down of what went and what stayed then they got to work. The moving company was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Very pleasant. Very efficient. And gave their very best efforts to entertain the kids while in the process. They set up an elevator outside our bathroom window that went to the ground and sent up the boxes. Our apartment was being packed in no time.

The kids and I hung around for about an hour before things just got a little too crazy and we venture out for a walk. Milayla and Atticus did not want to leave. We made it as far as the Rossmann before I admitted defeat and we went back, with bakery goods in hand to give to the movers. We hung around outside and chatted as Atticus demanded to go upstairs and sit on the couch. The morning was not going well for us, or at least not for the kids and I. I would have loved to take them to the back yard area and let them climb the ladder or play on the swing but I couldn't as that had been torn out and the ground flattened in favour of putting in a dog-activity playground. I guess the irony of that serves me right because I often joked that it sometimes felt like people cared more about dogs than children in that city...maybe there is some truth to it after all. So in lieu of the back area, the kids and I headed for the park and stopped to get what would be their last german Brotchen on the way. Brotchen is awesome. It takes forever for the kids to gnaw through and they love it. 

Unfortunately, there was a downside to our pleasantly warm Bremen Summer - wasps. Lots of them. And those wasps love checking out food in any form. So we didn't last long before we headed back in time to see everything packed up and ready to head out the bathroom window and out the elevator. 

The kids were so fascinated by the elevator and were practically glued to the window in Milayla's room as everything went down to the truck. We did manage to get them to sit down long enough to give Grandma a call though. 

And before we knew it, our things were loaded into the truck and we were calling for the taxi to come take us to our hotel for the last of our time in Bremen. I've learned first hand, that empty apartments are way more fun for children to play in that full ones. 

I must say, getting the kids to sit in full 5-point harnesses after riding in booster seats in the taxi has been a battle, especially when they are used to just the little straps in the bakfiets. Safety first, of course, but I'll be interested to see what kind of fun we get ourselves into once winter gear enters the picture. 

By the time everything was sorted out at the hotel we were all pretty hungry and I really had to fight the urge to introduce our kids to McDonalds and we hopped on the tram and headed downtown to try a new restaurant that we had never been to. It was the best choice EVER. The restaurant was empty. The service was great. They had a ton of vegetarian options. And, the best part, a big play space for the kids to play while we waited for our food to arrive. Not to mention, it was nice being able to stroll downtown one last time because we knew the very full weekend ahead of us would not afford the time for another trip downtown. 

We barely made it back to the hotel before we all fell fast asleep. The weekend ahead of us was full of a lot of errands. Thankfully, we had some visits with friends in there as well, so even though it was a very full weekend it was also very nice to see so many people in our last days in Bremen. We had a visit with Charmaine; lunch with Caroline, Ian and Harry; dinner with the Wekerle Family (Michelle, Martin, Henry & Niko), and a lovely little summer/farewell party with our church congregation. I am so grateful to have so many wonderful people in our group of friends. Can't wait for our paths to cross again soon! 

The party at church had a large, inflatable slide for the kids and oh, how all the kids (and some adults!) loved that thing. The kids just adored this thing and would take turns taking Jason and I up it. Milayla insisted on going down the slide on her own. Her face is priceless. She has a very concerned look on her face as she is going down, then is all smiles as she reaches the bottom and is begging to go back up again.

There are very few people that Milayla warmed up to enough to let them help her out with things (particularly during those points when she didn't really need the help), Megan is one of those people she seemed to warm up to quite well.

It was fun getting time to spend with everyone.

We also managed to squeeze in a hefty final clean of the apartment as well. We aren't exactly messy people, but there was definitely some dust to clean up after everything was packed and loaded. Thankfully, we had some very enthusiastic helpers; some friends and the sister missionaries. It was lovely to have some extra hands to help out.

Sunday wasn't exactly the day of rest that we were used to. We were able to say goodbye to those that were there and it was really nice. Atticus was sad when he realized that his Primary teacher wouldn't be his teacher in Montreal (though he has really warmed up to his great teacher here, as well!). I'm a little sad that the picture I have is blurry, but you can still see them all - Atticus, Maria and Zoey.

I'm so glad that we grabbed a picture with Sofia as well. It isn't the greatest picture of us, but we are all there and I will have a picture to show the kiddos. Sofia is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people that I know. She was also nursery leader to both the kids in the time that we were in Bremen. She was also a great friend; she reached out to me when we first moved into the ward and was always checking in. We loved having her over for visits, especially for Christmas and other holidays. We will definitely miss seeing her smiling face every Sunday at church.

After church, it was final wrap up time. We hunted down some food which led us to the parking lot which reminded us of the very first time we came to Bremen and got lost and ended up in this very parking lot. The kids didn't quite understand why I was taking a picture of them in a parking lot, but it even has the Messe in the background.

I snagged a picture of the library as we were passing it because I still can't get over the beautiful building that the kids and I got to go to every week to take out books. 

And then it was on to the longest apartment handover in history - 2.5 hours. Yeah... after all that effort to clean the place the agent didn't even remark on the cleanliness. Instead we got charged for 2 missing keys (which were missing before we moved in, but in our naivety we didn't realize that was something we needed to put in the contract...ugh...hindsight.). Anyhow, our landlord had no qualms about the place and thankfully, the kids held up pretty well.

As we closed up the apartment to head downstairs, thinking we were done, we had one last picture. Milayla was exhausted and Atticus was so happy to finally be leaving that he couldn't even hold still..

Then it was still some time more downstairs before everything was actually done. The kids and I enjoyed the sunshine outside while we waited.

It was a packed weekend. Thankfully, despite pretty massive exhaustion, we were mostly all in good spirits. Though, after so many days in a row without naps the kids were prone to more melt downs than usual. I felt terrible as we had to just push through to get things done and those little ones just wanted a little bit of down time. Thankfully, it's done now! And we made it through! Yay!!!