Record-breaking

On February 16th, Ottawa broke records for the most snowfall in one day, over 51 cm!!! (That's over a foot and a half for my American friends!)  This shot is from our master bedroom looking down at our neighborhood below.

Look how tall our snow drifts are.  It's impossible to see while backing out of the driveway.  I have to have one of the kids stand at the end and motion to me when the street is clear of oncoming traffic.

Walk through our little tunnel to make it to our front door.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but our backyard is full-up!  If we opened up our sliding glass door, snow would fall into our house!

 

The kids were off school (when the school buses don't drive, neither do I) and Len was home sick from work.  It was a great day to watch the Back to the Future trilogy!

Monkey Love

On February 8th, Len and I celebrated the new year of the monkey with a date to the Mandarin Buffet.  Yum!  We are definitely going back there.  After our meal they gave us these cute red envelopes with their "Mandarin" coins inside.

 

On February 13th, Len and I celebrated Valentine's Day with a date to the National Gallery.  We went to see the temporary Monet exhibit "Bridges to Modernity" and unfortunately it was such a disappointment.  Monet is one of my favorite artists and I was hoping to have a wonderful experience like we did when we visited his home in Giverny, France.  We still had a great date though as we got to visit our favorites on display in the permanent collection.  I just adore these statues by Jean-baptiste Carpeaux.  On the right is Neapolitan Fisherboy with Shell (1857-1862) and on the left is Girl with a Shell (1863-1867).

On February 14th, we celebrated both Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day with the kiddos.

We had a scrumptious Chinese food feast...

...followed by a fresh strawberry Valentine's cake.

This cake is seriously soooo good!

Fresh strawberries and strawberry jello make the cake so tasty, I filled it with strawberry mousse, and topped with fresh strawberry buttercream frosting.  We actually found good ol' fashioned strawberry ice cream (usually can only be found in Neapolitan) to make it a la mode and drizzled more fresh strawberry puree on it.

I need to make this cake my signature dessert.

I'm so lucky to have 6 little sweethearts!

Kaleb and Noé passed out oatmeal cookies to their classmates in honor of the day.  Kaleb also got a chocolate rose from a girl in our stake.

(Our fun fortunes: You will have good luck in business affairs.)

(A good deed will make you feel good.)

Noé was the most spoiled with this darling bunny and a sweet card from her crush.  The scarf she's wearing was also a gift from him at Christmas time.  She also gave him a box of chocolates and a darling card.

Gavin passed out Star Wars Valentine cards to his classmates...

(Getting away for the weekend will help clear your mind.)

...and Teague passed out Good Dinosaur cards to his.

(You will have an exciting business adventure.)

 

This cutie likes silly pictures the best!

(Being aware of your fears will improve your life.)

Little Princess just woke up from her nap, but she still obliged me with a picture.

(A financial investment will yield returns beyond your wildest hopes.)

I'm so grateful for my forever Valentine and dedicate THIS song to him!  Love you Leonard!!

(Jen's fortune: Very little is needed to make a happy life.

Len's fortune:  When it comes to love, your heart will guide you.)

Women who follow Christ

For our Young Women's New Beginnings, Annick and I planned a "Women who follow Christ" program.  We chose 8 women from the scriptures to pair up with one of the values and had another pair of sisters prepare a talk for each one (mother/daughter, sisters, friends).  These are the sisters we put with each value:

Faith- Abish (Book of Mormon)

Divine Nature- Mary Magdalene (New Testament)

Individual Worth- Rebekah (Old Testament)

Knowledge- Martha (New Testament)

Choice & Accountability- Eve (Old Testament)

Good Works- Ruth (Old Testament)

Integrity- Esther (Old Testament)

Virtue- Mary, the Mother of Jesus (New Testament) 

 

I was also asked to do the decorations.  My friend Laura came over one day and together we made tissue paper flowers for 5 hours (we made a total of 84) in the 8 value colors and light and dark pink too. 

There are 4 windows in our YW room and most of the flowers were hung on the curtains.  There was also a large vase with bigger flowers of the value colors in it.

Annick made everything look extra fancy.

She also made the yummy refreshments...

...her rainbow jello and cupcakes are always a hit!

It is so wonderful serving with the YW leaders in our ward and most especially getting to know the wonderful young women.  They are beautiful on the outside and inside, they are women who follow Christ!

Lotsa Kidsa

Before we had kids Len and I dreamed of our home being the "hang out" spot when our kids were teenagers.  With our upcoming move to India, we decided we better get a move on with this dream of ours so our kids could make lasting memories with their wonderful friends here.  We invited all the youth from church over for a games night.  About two-thirds were able to make it over and they had a great time!

The little ones also had one of their friends over and enjoyed playing together too.

My friend Annick usually babysits my friend Maggie's twin boys.  Annick went to Mexico for 10 days (so lucky!), so my friends Grace, Mary, and I got the fun of watching the boys.  They are such darling boys, but taking care of toddler triplets and a pre-schooler is a lot of work!

Precious Girl

Ali learned how to climb out of her crib and thus naptime has become a thing of the past.  Sometimes she just can't make it until bedtime and she'll crash out while playing.

Sweet sleeping beauty, we love you so!

Star Works

This year for our parent-child dates we decided to switch it up a bit.  Instead of one parent with each child, we'll be having both parents with each child.  Look how tall Kaleb is!  He'll soon pass me, and I expect he'll pass his Dad too.

We went out to dinner at The Works for some gourmet burgers, onion rings, and milk shakes.  To be honest, their burgers are a bit much for me, but I could eat their onion rings and drink their milkshakes every month!

 

Afterwards we took him to see Star Wars 7.  He loved it just as much as Gavin did and we enjoyed seeing it a second time!

The Good Shepherd

At the end of the year I got released from my calling as the Relief Society secretary and called to serve in Young Women's as the Mia Maid Adviser.  I was sad to leave the Relief Society, but so excited to be with the Young Women (it's my favorite organization to be in, plus I get to be there with Noé!).  I did the bulletin boards in Relief Society one last time before my calling changed.

Lovest thou me?

Feed my lambs,

Feed my sheep,

Feed my sheep.

More pj's

We had two wonderful weeks celebrating the holidays with our family, but of course it went way too fast.  We were back to our hectic pace of day-to-day life and it took us until January 16th to get all of our Christmas decorations finally taken down.  Before we did though, we had to take pictures one more time in our Christmas pj's.  I just love this sweet family!

More Special Memories

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year.  We participated in other fun festivities that we want to remember, even if we don't have pictures from them.  I want to record them here.  At Easter I mentioned that I got a new book A Christ-Centered Easter that I really enjoyed.  I had to get its companion A Christ-Centered Christmas and I really liked it too and this lovely nativity that came with it.

 

Here are some other great things we did:

Delivered our Christmas cards to local friends via caroling

Gave gifts to our school teachers and bus drivers

Watched The First Presidency Christmas Devotional

Acted as a Secret Santa for the 12 days of Christmas

Saw the lights on Taffy Lane

Had our traditional dinner with the Montminy family

Watched the live Nativity Pageant in our Stake

Went to the Wilde's party with the Clarks, Symonds, Williams, Stiles, Jones, and Guilbeault families

Donated food to the hampers at church (and other charitable organizations)

Fed the Elder and Sister Missionaries

Watched The Peanuts Movie on Boxing Day

(Unfortunately we missed the Williams New Year's Party on the 2nd of January as Len was driving down to Syracuse and back)

 

I also LOVED reading these books:

I had read Two From Galilee before and liked it then.  I read it again this year and loved it even more.  I had to finish the series and read the other books in the trilogy...

Three From Galilee...

and The Messiah were thoroughly enriching.  I have read other historical fiction works that were set during the Savior's life, but they were from the perspective of fictitious followers of Him.  This series is told through the eyes of each named player in the Biblical account of Jesus' life.  It's still fiction, but I really came to know and love the characters, even Judas Iscariot.  I am in awe of the man Jesus Christ.  I know He is no ordinary man though, I know that He is God.  The love He offers to me and all mankind is sometimes incomprehensible.  It is easy for me to believe His love in a general sense, it is harder for me to believe His love in a personal sense.  I know those doubts come from Satan trying to make me feel unworthy of such love.  The truth is Jesus loves me so much that He died for me so I can repent and return to live with Him and my Father in Heaven when this mortal journey is through.

 

I have to share one of my favorite hymns to express my feelings:

 

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,

Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,

That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

 

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

 

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine

To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,

That he should extend his great love unto such as I,

Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

 

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!

Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?

No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,

Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

 

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

(Lyrics and Music by: Charles H. Gabriel)

Click HERE then click on Vocals and Music to have a listen.