February 14th

Happy Valentine's Day.

We have been celebrating since last Friday when the girls each had a few

friends over to celebrate friendship.

It was a great time.

The girls and I made these sweet sugar cookies to share for dessert.

They turned out so pretty, probably because they are decorated in pink!

I am quite predictable when it comes to holidays, the stores must know it, because

shortly after Christmas is over I get the urge to buy anything pink or red.

Now that Valentine's is over I am looking into those soft spring colours,

baby yellow, spring green, robin's egg blue.

It's a sickness!

My Sweetie bought me this lovely card with one of my favorite scripture verses.

I have been wanting to incorporate this verse into our bedroom decor.

He's been listening;)

My mom stopped by before supper to drop us off a special valentine's

message and dessert.

The girls have also gotten feathers in their hair.

Kerrington's is double drop feather, Ireland has a single blue one and Jillianne's is a black and white polka dotted one.

This is one of those trends that we didn't mind saying yes to, that way when a weird one comes out,

 I'll have no problem saying No!

Some yes, some no.

That is small philosophy of mine ;)

Until next time,   Joceline



Magnified Fun

There are really no words needed for this post.

Aren't they lovely?

Love these girls, they make me laugh so much.

Until next time,

one proud mama!



Remembering

So in the busy month of December a very special girl

in our family turned 14.

Where has the time gone.

Mark and I sometimes laugh at this, we are parents to a teenager, well actually for over a year now.

I am going to pause and let that sink in.

Nope still can't believe it!

Well in any case believing it or not, it is a reality and we are loving it.

Kerrington is a sweetheart.

We have been blessed by God with her.

Remembering back to two days after she was born,

I was released from the hospital and she was not,

Mark and I were driving home and we were so overwhelmed

by how much we loved our little girl.

It just came on so naturally.

She had turned us into parents.

At 20 and 22 years old we in some ways were babies ourselves, but we rose to the awesome responsibility

of taking care of another human being and we haven't looked back since.

We have so loved being her parents.

Kerrington is a beautiful girl with a tender heart.

She is always looking for ways to help or bless anyone she comes in contact with.

She is very loyal and very dependable.

She loves to make lists.

She is very crafty, the stuff she creates is so wonderful.

She is quite organized.

She is fourteen, but she is still my little girl.

Even though her face looks fourteen, there are some days when she makes a certain expression and I am transported back to when she is only two and a half.

It all goes by so fast.

So Happy 14th Birthday, Honey.

Thanks for being patient with us as we grow right along with you.

We love you more than you'll ever know.

Until next time,   mom

Back to Life

I have been so wonderfully busy making the sweetest memories with my family

 and was actually excited for December because I'd have so many things to post.

As you can tell I never did.

For the sake of our own memories, this will be small

 re-cap post for the girls.

If I posted any more pictures I'd have to do a Christmas one through ten!

December 2011

I am usually part of a cookie exchange but this year

I wanted to do all my baking with the girls and I let them choose.

That was a lot of fun.

We made sugar cookies, ginger bread cookies, snowman cake balls...

all the girls favorites.

The ginger bread house was Mark's and the girl's creation.

We almost didn't do one this year, but I stumbled upon a pre-built one for $6.99.

It turned out so cute.

We added the Christmas tree sugar cones, they were left over from the

fire hall kid's Christmas party we organized.

That too turned out great!

Mark and I celebrated sixteen years on the sixteenth!

I really doesn't feel like we have been married for that many years already,

I love him more today than the day I married him.

He is my best friend.

I can't get enough of him!

I'll post more on that another day.

We made our annual homemade donuts with mema.

She is pretty sure this was her grandfather's family recipe.

Christmas eve is spent opening presents at my mom and dad's house but not until Grandpa has

read the Christmas story.

He has been doing this for quite a few years.

I love it.

This year it was from a book I picked up a the dollar store, and it is the best children's version of the Christmas story I've ever heard.

We enjoyed the fire place up at Mark's mom and dad's house while the power was out,

because of all of this.

We didn't have a white Christmas this year, but a white December 28th, we'll take it!

Every year I say to myself this was the best Christmas ever.

This year it really was!

 ( til next Christmas ;)

Until next time,  Joceline

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

I have been overtaken by Christmas spirit, I was trying to hold off and actually this is alot

later than last year. So I guess I'm doing okay.

Our house is all decorated for Christmas.

It actually started a few weeks ago when I sat my sweet little family down for a Christmas meeting.

I had a survey to go over with them to see if what we were doing at Christmas was being enjoyed by all.

Our "meeting" lasted all of 5 minutes, apparently I've got this Christmas thing right, because there were no complaints or request.

I am on the right Christmas track.

I enjoy having all my decorating done before the season really kicks in because we get very busy, quite quickly this time of year and I love it.

Christmas is by far my most favorite time of year.

Decorating, baking, shopping...

but my most favourite is sitting by the tree snuggling with any one of my family members.

My decoration colours have always been gold and burgundy, but his year I thought I'd spice it up

a little and throw in some turquoise.

I think I like it.

         

Jillianne got a pre-Christmas, Christmas gift from my mom.

Right from the time she could walk, she has loved playing with my mom's glass nativity,

now she has her own version.

She loves it.

     

Our Nativity.

 

                                              The girls have definitely inherited my love for Christmas,
                                                                   just as I did from my mom.
                                    They have a tree of their own in their rooms, which they decorate all
                                                                           by themselves.
                                                         Here is Kerrington's tree in her room.

and of course Ireland and Jillianne's tree.

Their tree is full of ornaments, but not as much as last year.

I was afraid it would tip over,  I reminded myself it was their tree, so I stood back and appreciated their

artistic flair.

I so love being a mom but this time of year takes the cake, all the sweet wonderful memories.

So in keeping up with Christmas spirit,

Let me be the first to wish you,

Merry Christmas

Until next time,  Joceline



Our Trip Part Four

While at our hotel in Sackville,

I happened to pick up yet another magazine or brochure of things to do while in New Brunswick,

 and there was an ad for the world's longest covered bridge.

We thought that would be fun and it was right off the highway we were traveling on back to Ontario.

We all found it pretty cool, since it is not something we see everyday.

We also stopped off on the boarder of New Brunswick and Quebec to see some thundering falls.

You could feel them a whole lot.

They were gorgeous.

We then decide to go to Ottawa and see the Parliament.

We would have taken a tour but we had a luggage rack or a hamburger as my girls call it, on the roof of the van, so we didn't fit in the parking garage.

We found a parking spot two blocks away from Parliament and only had 45 minutes.

That is as long as the metre would allow.

So we scampered right to the door way, said a prayer for our government, took a few pictures and made it back before time ran out.

What a busy area!

We ended our wonderful trip with a stop off and Grandma and Grandpa's house.

This is a place of sweet relaxation.

No hustle and bustle here.

Lots of room to run and play.

A perfect place to end our wonderful vacation.

I will forever cherish the time we spent together.

  Until next time,  Joceline



Halloween Night

We had a wonderful Halloween night.

We took the kids to church for a party.

Boy oh boy, was it a par-tey

There was pony rides.



A giant slide.

A  super bouncy, bouncy castle

Sumo suits

Sweet cotton candy

Jousting fights. 

 This is were Ireland spent most of the night.

She was a little spitfire.

Face painting

and of course lots and lots of candy!

For days before all I heard the girls say was  "I can't wait for Monday."

It seriously did not disappoint.

Until next time,  Joceline