Nine for New York

I have so many photos to post from this wonderful trip.  My first time to New York City with Aunt Debbi, Lynn, Whitney, Mom, Amanda, Erika, Aunt Connie, and Rachel.  We had a blast!

Empire State of Mind

Tomorrow night I have a date with my mom, 2 sisters, sister-in-law, 2 aunties, and 2 cousins in New York City! I am being spoiled and get to spend the weekend with them in the Empire State and to say I am EXCITED would be an understatement. While I'm gone enjoy a little music by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

As mentioned earlier, here's some pics from our stroll along the Rideau.

Daddy's girl,

and Momma's boys!

Near the end, Teague was tired of the stroller so I carried him the rest of the way. I asked Len to get a picture of us and then...

...Teague leaned in to give me his first kiss! It was so sweet, and I'm so glad Len caught it too. This weekend he also said "mama" for the first time! He's said "dada" and "baba" for a while now, but it just melted my heart when I heard him say "mama"!

Another momma out with her 4 babies.

Does anyone want to play Duck, Duck, Goose?

Celebrating Victoria

I always tease my husband that Canadians have an English Queen. My friend told me that I am more Canadian than Elizabeth II, to which I replied, "Yes, I am, so I should be the new Queen of Canada," ha ha ha. Regardless of politics, I'm glad to celebrate the founding Queen's birthday because my husband and children got a 3-day weekend.


Saturday morning I drove the kids out to Kars for their friend's birthday party. They spent the morning taking care of the horses and doing chores. After their lunch break they got to ride and they really enjoyed it, especially Noe. Her smile was huge and she kept saying, "this is so awesome!" Our neighbors take horse riding lessons, and have offered to take Noe with them one time. I know she would love it, but the lessons are SO expensive! I was so sad when I got down the road and realized I forgot my camera. The birthday girl's mom is my friend though, and she said she'll e-mail me some pics, so I'll post pictures from the party then.


On our way home from the party I picked up our babysitter, brought her home with me, nursed Teague, kissed all the kids, then Len and I ran out the door again for an X-Men marathon. Our friends invited us over with 3 other couples to watch all 4 movies. I had never seen them before and actually enjoyed them a lot more than I was expecting. Plus we pigged out on yummy movie food.

Since last Thursday our family had been battling the common cold. I woke up Sunday morning with a full-blown sinus infection and felt like my head was in a vice. Since we were all feeling bad we stayed home from church (and I missed a Bishopric meeting, BYC, SED, and visiting teaching- ugh!) and rested, then I remembered to use my neti pot. Actually, I have the NeilMed Sinus Rinse, but I love it! It gives you the WEIRDEST sensation when you use it, but it really helps relieve sinus pressure and nasal congestion. It doesn't "cure" you, but helps to manage your symptoms really well.

We had a nice Family Home Evening, then got the kids in bed. After devoting 6 years of our lives to the TV show LOST, we had to watch the series finale! It didn't end how I was expecting it too, but I still enjoyed it. Everyone got their happily ever after with their loved one and that's what I'm all about.

Monday was the holiday and the weather was just gorgeous. I was still feeling crappy, but I had to take advantage of the day. We went downtown and walked the Rideau Canal out to Dows Lake. It was so nice to be out and "smell the roses," although all the tulips were dead and the only flowers in rich abundance were dandelions. We walked for over 2 hours and the kids did well keeping up. We kept refilling their water bottles at the handy water fountains along the path, and kept refilling them with graham crackers and the promise of ice cream at the end. When we reached the end we were all pretty exhausted from the heat, so we decided to take the bus back to our van. Canada is not like the States when holidays roll around- EVERYTHING closes down (no shopping, movies, or even groceries!) and the buses run on limited service. So our little 10 minute tour bus ride to where we were parked cost us $24 and then our parking cost $16. $40 is a lot of money to spend to walk in nature, but it was well worth it and we did go home to have ice cream for dinner-yea! (I'll post our pics from the day soon too.)

Our Favorite Picture Spot

In-between chores and errands last Saturday, we were able to squeeze in a few minutes at our favorite garden from our old stomping grounds. It's one of our little best kept secrets. Actually, if you'd like to visit it's at the CMHC.


The kids had so much fun running back and forth across this bridge. I tried to get some action shots, but they didn't turn out very well. Here's the best of the semi-posed shots.

I'm glad I caught Teague laughing, because he did NOT like sitting in the grass with bare legs. He was so funny because he wanted to crawl out of it, but he didn't want to touch it with his hands either so he was trapped for a small moment. It was really funny.

We need to visit again when we're dolled up and it's not so windy.

Mother's Day Bouquets

Mother's Day is always bittersweet for me. I feel this huge guilt for all the things I'm doing wrong as a mother. I also feel this overwhelming gratitude for my sweet children. I love each one as if they were my one and only, but I am so glad they are ALL mine! I remember the quote, "there is no one way to be a perfect mother, but there are millions of ways to be a good one." To risk sounding conceited I'm going to say I AM a good mother! Do I make mistakes? Daily. Have I cried myself to sleep at night for losing my temper? Several times. Do I love my children with all of my heart? Yes, and my soul! Am I trying my best to raise them to be good people? Yes, I am. The keyword is trying. I am trying and they are trying. None of us are perfect, but we love each other perfectly. That's what counts!

Kaleb made these flowers for me in his French class (as did Noe).

Noe made me this bouquet and decoupaged the vase at her Activity Day.

Gavin made me these ones in Primary (along with Kaleb and Noe).

Teague got me this rose from Sacrament meeting.

I'm so grateful for my husband and for him being the father of my children. I read in a novel somewhere that a couple was desiring children because they wanted to see their love personified, or something along those lines. I think the sentiment is sweet and I love seeing our love for each other personified in our beautiful babies. I truly am blessed!

Tulip Festival

The Canadian Tulip Festival claims to be the world's largest tulilp festival with half a million visitors each year to see the 3 million tulips on display. The Festival began after 1945 when the Dutch Royal Family sent over 100,000 bulbs in thanks for Canada sheltering Princess Juliana and her daughters for 3 years while the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. The most noteworthy event during that time was the birth of Princess Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Canada made the maternity ward international territory, so Margriet would inherit only Dutch citizenship from her mother allowing her to be an heir to the throne in the Netherlands. Princess Margriet actually came to town this year for the tulip festival and Leonard got to see her.

When we lived here before our tradition was to walk along the Rideau Canal from Parliament Hill down to Dows Lake and see the beautiful flowers. This year the weather has been sunny during the work week, but pouring down rain on the weekends. So last Friday night, the kids and I picked Len up from work and drove straight to Dows Lake to take a few pics while we still had sunlight.

Here we are, ready to tiptoe through the tulips.


Wait, this sign tells us we better not- tee hee.


We saw an Indian couple in gorgeous wedding clothes (aqua blue makes a stunning color for a wedding dress) getting their pictures taken in front of all the tulips. Someday I would love to hire a professional photographer to take my family's pictures there too. Until then, here are some of my snapshots.

There are just seas of tulips everywhere and I just love it (they were our wedding flowers after all).

These pink and orange ones were called "ballerinas" and don't they look so slender and graceful?

I can't remember the name of these ones, but they were like huge honkin' pom poms. I love the chubby ones too!

Behind the lake are more old school mansions like at Rockcliffe Park. Fancy an English Tudor?


This country French style was my favorite, doesn't it look like it's out of a storybook?

This house is pretty in it's own way too, but I think it would fit in better on the coast of the Mediterranean than in this neighborhood.

Do you recognize this water? That is what we skated on during Winterlude.
Even though I will always be a "summer" girl at heart, it has been fun experiencing the four seasons again.