A Short Sweet Month to remember

We really have been having the best February.

We have been very busy 

but

I have been trying especially hard to slow down and do some extras with the kids

(and having a friend to encourage that is a huge bonus)

We wrapped up basketball and Ellie did great 

and 

I had a great time hanging out with moms that I don't normally get a chance to visit with.

We went to a trampoline park and the kiddos had the best time.

 Dusty took the girls to 4-H foods and they learnt about cake decorating 

AND

seriously we may have discovered ANOTHER hidden talent that Penny has!!

You can expect a bakery to open any day now....

 OH FOR THE LOVE OF HOCKEY

AND BOYS

ESPECIALLY THESE BOYS

Oh man! Dusty gets a gold star because he took ALL the kids to the hockey game SOLO 

and it was with school

SO

ALL of their friends were there.

It was CHAOS

and these two were Captain Chaos and Lieutenant Loud

It's been a great month and we are ending it by playing play-off hockey against a great team and it's been a blast ending our month this way!!

basket ball and trampolines

Oh man! what an awesome weekend!!
Jam-packed as usual but there was some great highlights!

Penny and her little hockey team got to go watch the university team play. They got to be in the dressing room for the pep talk and go out on the bench and watch the team warm up. She hung out with her hockey bestie and came home buzzing. The next day their team won their game and solidified their spot in playoffs.

Lucy was the sheep queen this weekend. She stayed home and hung out with Gramma and Andy and made sure all the new born lambs were up and doing their thing. She also took charge of bottle feeding the bottle lamb and got to have a friend over to play on Saturday.

Ellie was in a basketball tournament and they ended up winning!!! She had a great time hanging out with all her friends and I had a great time watching them play ball.

Andy.... well, his Gramma came and saved him from being toted around all weekend. He had the best time reading books and watching movies.

This week we had a PD day so I took Lucy, Penny, and Andy to the trampoline park and we met Stacey and her mom and the kiddos there and it was an awesome hour and everyone was PLAYED out.
Came home and headed to hockey practise with Penny and she had a surprise pizza party after. It's so much fun to be apart of such a great little team. Her coaches and other players and parents are really great!

This next weekend should be filled with awesomeness too..... 4-H, more basketball, AND the Superbowl!!!!!

Public Speaking

We had an awesome weekend!
The kids had a full schedule and I had a full schedule but theirs was full of things they love!

Dusty came home early so he could curl with our team and we did so great!!
We actually had three ends in a row where we scored points and I made some crazy shots!!

Ellie had a Young Women's activity with everyone in the area. She said it was like a carnival and then she look off to her friends house for the day to play basketball!

We had our first "with horses" 4-H horse project meeting and we measured and weighed everybody's horses. It was actually super fun and we have such a good group of kids.

Then the next day Dusty and I went to Penny's first game at 8am and she did so great.
It was a really close game and they beat Cochrane by 1 point.
I went home and did the older girls hair for 4-H public speaking...
I should of taken a picture of it!!!
We rushed back to the rink to watch Penny's second game against Med Hat.
She won so then they were on to Semi-finals against the grey Lethbridge team.
Dusty stayed with Penny (and Andy... oh Andy)
and I took off with the older girls to public speaking.

The girls did so great.
Ellie was the very first speech of the day and you could tell she was a little nervous but she battled through and ended up with a great speech.
Ellie nailed her impromptu and got first's across the board.
Then Lucy spoke after the break.
and it was her day.
She delivered a wonderful speech and her impromptu was amazing.
She was beaming.

Lucy placed first in the Juniors and Ellie placed second in the intermediates!

We loaded up (with a few additions!!) and headed back into Magrath.
We dropped off the extra girls and headed to the rink to catch Penny's game for third place in the tournament.
Penny's team lost a really close game in overtime to the grey team so we played Cochrane for third. They played a good game but Penny was outa gas and they lost a good game.
What a weekend!!!!

Birthdays

This year dusty and I did more for our birthdays than I think we ever have done! Most of it was last minute and it was our friends that swooped in and helped change things up. It was fun and simple and easy!
I got to go out to dinner at Brown's and Dusty and I ate dessert while waiting for Jared and Jasmine. It is always so easy to hang out with them! Jasmine tried a spicy tuna roll for the first time and it was hilarious, she was NOT a big fan. We split up and went home and we played a game with the kids. Stacey texted the next morning and asked us to go and ride. Dusty's been wanting to go so we packed up and headed over. The ponies all did great. We invited Tom and Stacey over for dinner and it was a good thing because we had so much food. This year Dusty wanted Steak Oscar, roasted mini potatoes, salad, garlic bread, AND strawberry cream cake PLUS we got to eat my delicious chocolate cake that Stacey made. I was also surprised but a couple friends who brought me gifts and it was such a sweet birthday!!!

Now that our birthdays are over though, there's not many excuses to eat a little healthier! hahaha

Andy Boy

This Kid!! Is the craziest little thing ever!
He kept me on my toes all day.

He literally woke me up with a wet willy that he calls a wet washy and then a big lick to the side of the face.
So gross.

Then he pretty much jumps on me every 20 seconds demanding, in rotation, pancakes or tv.
Yeesh.

He finally scampers off to drink chocolate milkshake and I crawl out of bed.
I make him a little breakfast to go with the milk shake and sit down to do some work. Every 10 minutes I was interupted with a request of snakes and ladders or the need for a drink (which he can get on his own but refused today). Finally after completely just two documents I conceded for an Andy break. I made him more pancakes because he was "starving". He ate 4.
We then rushed and got ready to go visit some neighbour ladies. I took an ipad thinking that it would be the perfect solution since he was media deprived all morning. WRONG.
He pretty much complained the entire time of being starving and thirsty. AND then got out all the other peoples toys and made a mess and was just really freaking annoying.
FINALLY got home. Made him some pickles. He ate the entire jar and then refused to eat dinner.
At hockey he ran away and so I left to get Penny dressed and mid-dressing a mom brought in a very panicked bawling Andy...... We have been to the rink thousands of times... He knows every location AND he ran away from us.... anyways
MOVING on....
so I get her on the ice and then go to fuel up. He runs into the road, won't sit in the car while I pay, loses mittens, and then runs off again when we get back to the rink.

And now, even in sleep he is restless and barking demands IN HIS SLEEP.

He and I are ready for the next phase.... SCHOOL.... too bad it's 2 years away!!

An entire Year...

I REALLY fell off the bandwagon last year. In internet land i will be left with nothing documenting the momentous year our family had.
2016 brought a lot of tears. It also brought a lot of growth.
I would say that it started fairly full of prospect. We bought tickets to disneyland at the very beginning of last year. We also hunckered down and got to some serious work.

We lambed late. It was an extreamly long spring. Hockey remained a constant through the spring and summer. We lost lambs and almost lost a ewe. We had lots of baby goats and field trips and riding lessons. We spent almost all summer chasing our tails and just looking for the break we got to take going to disneyland.

We had horseshows and Dusty started working odd shifts for a local farm. I started walking with a group of ladies and the kids just were kids. Our donkey's both died. School started and Ellie skipped off to Junior high
(was NOT a smart plan leaving the first week of grade 7....Volleyball tryouts were missed...class orintation.... )

The break was nice. But it also lead to some serious contemplation of making some life changes. Waterton burnt down. Fall came in like a freight train. and Basketball season and hockey started and life just kept on rolling. I left my job at the ag society to take 1 more year on the board. 4-H started. Our animals were set up for multiple breeding seasons and we welcomed our first batch of fall kids. And then disease decended. Weeks were spent medicating. Disinfecting.  Our animal disease coincided with flu season and that took it's toll. I got hit the hardest and I am finally starting the find my feet again. Christmas was a welcomed refuge. Our family got to take a deep breath in and finally we exhaled and embarked on a new year.

This year will need to be documented. It will be one that our kids will turn to in our journals. I sadly won't be able to write all the details here but I will need a place to remember the warm and fuzzy moments. To be able to share birthdays and the small and simple celebrations in our lives. So here's to 2018. May we (and you) find happiness in the paths our feet will trod.

Saddle pads, arena riding, and switching callings

My brother in law is helping me out by riding some of my beasts at the feedlot so I started a wool pad for him. Should fill up my down time for a while! 

AND we actually made it to the arena!!

We haven't ridden all winter and it was nice to get back. The horses did pretty good. A couple got a little fresh but nothing unmanageable. 

Poor penny has a cold

Ellie is exhausted.

Andy had a nap so he his wired.

And Lucy is being overly helpful.

I also switched stuff with another lady from church. We swapped callings so I dropped off the enrichment things and picked up the activity days things. 

It was a fun full day and tomorrow looks about the same.

Football Sunday

Our family has had full weekend. It was just one if those weekends I could repeat and repeat. 

We started off by dropping Penny off at the rink to meet her coach. She played her first game in an opening tournament but my older girls were off to 4-h Speak-offs. Penny was thrilled and my other girls were nervous!

The club speak Off was fantastic. So many of the kids worked so hard on their speeches. 

This is Lucy's prepared speech. It has to be between. 3-5 minutes.

https://youtu.be/rvAyjE8vUfY

This is Ellie's impromptu. They are given three topic and have 30 seconds to pick and then 1 minute to write down some thoughts. It has to be between 1-2 minutes.

https://youtu.be/fZncx3I-fK0

Lucy placed 3rd and Ellie placed 1st so Ellie will now head to compete at districts.

We got home late and were up early and headed back to hockey where Penny had two more games let to play against some Calgary teams. It was great hockey. Penny won the first game Friday 10-2 and then we tied the second game 9-9 and the third game we won 11-9. As soon as we got home we headed into the high school basketball game. It was a super exciting game and ELLIE and Penny had a great time. My poor friend I was sitting with had to explain things going on... Hahaha clearly not a watched or played sport in our house! 

Now football. Pizza. Dips. Pop. 

Life doesn't get much better than this!

Meetings

I have had a week of meetings. We have a few projects on the go and life seems to be moving like a jet plane or freight train or something remarkably quick.

Next year I hope our life schedule looks different but part of my balancing resolution is making the best of the commitments we have currently. Yesterday as I was driving I was grumbling to myself so I stopped to try and think of something good. 

This is a silly thing but I LOVE my coat. 

And I love loud music.

And I love driving around.

We had a few other adventures. On Tuesday night my dogs were going wild in the front yard and then I saw a giant rat scurry out from between them.

They must of caught a muskrat from the swamp. Poor thing. Dusty says they're vermin but we are overrun with cattails and that's what they eat so....

The kids were pretty amazed at the swamp rat and have a new adventure of trying to catch one. 

The weather changed and so the animals were all set free from their captivity in the barn. Everything is happy to flap and run and buck and bunt. 

The weather looks like it will hold for a little while so that will be a welcomed change for everyone!

Perspective

Andy is mischievous 

Even if your back is turned momentarily you can turn to find utter disaster.

I am not exaggerating 

Today my brother and sister in law stopped in.

We visited MAYBE 10 minutes in the doorway.

As they were exiting, Penny sees Andy is the toilet.

He dumped toilet water all over his hair.

We have hockey...

We are trying to get ready....

It's my birthday celebration today....

I was annoyed...

I still am sort of...

I bathed him.

Found him ANOTHER outfit to wear to go to town

A friend posted this on the Facebook.

I think part of me feeling like I am balancing my life will be a shift in perspective. 

I will not let 5 minutes alter my day...

You may find me repeating this phrase while banging my head on the wall.....