beauty

is all around us

love this time of life when Kiara watches me get ready. when she spies me taking out the basket of make-up, she hops up onto the toilet seat and copies me. Aidan used to enjoy this as well (although we encouraged him to copy daddy and shave the hair off his face!), but he didn't ever catch on to the details of the make-up process. Kiara knows what brush to use on her eyes and where to get the colour to do it! it is amazing what she is already noticing.

translated: i am in trouble!!!

it is also fun now as Kiara's hair is getting some length and thickness to it. i'm trying to get up the courage to do her first hair cut. it isn't the worry about doing it right, or keeping her still long enough to finish the job. it is all about the courage to cut that first strand of baby hair. once you make the first cut...you are committed...no turning back...no chance for a second chance at the first haircut...and sad to see the hair she was born with cut away... for now my challenge is to put in the pig tails and keep them. which she is improving on.

i got to go out this afternoon to a community ladies event that Ingrid invited me to. for a $15 entry fee you could get a massage, manicure, foot treatment, reflexology, hair styled, talk to nutritionist, etc. so for 3 hours we were pampered and spoiled. it was great! at the end there were door prizes and i think most of the ladies got something.

i got this basket of goodies from a store called the Painted Porch. so cool! my friends got a gift certificate and bag from Curves (ladies gym) and a 30 minute massage. how happy were we!! and it is always nice when everyone you came with gets something. i remember waiting after fun runs when they did the draws. and hoping for a pair of socks - at least! i think i have as much (if not more!) fun in the winning than the prize itself. this is probably good to know. you see my face in the crowd, know there will be a draw, get my name, and award me with a prize of something like the poster advertising the event! or some old lipstick you had in your purse! well...you get the idea! there must be some psychology behind all of this. right? okay now i'm getting scared! hehe and speaking of winning i have to interrupt myself. was i ever thrilled to have Leica post my spring layouts and a photo of mine on her blog yesterday. she had a contest or random draw. and before you get the idea that i won (which i did not), but she posted a few things from all of us that sent her something. is that not sweet?! see i was happy and didn't even have to win anything!

i got to have a glass of wine while i was pampered. so i chose to have a parafin treatment on my feet, get my feet analyzed - and my feet are normal! yahoo!! then i had a manicure. chose red polish to match my sweater (or my wine). i just had a haircut yesterday and today i confess that all i did was do the wash, blowdry and go before i went to this event. how happy was i when i also got to have my hair styled.

see how cute it looked!

i just never would have tried this on my own. and now i have a new challenge.

at this point i ate a brownie, drank some starbucks coffee, spoke with the nutritionists (who are probably in the same class as Roslyn, one of the amazing urban girls). then i had some reflexology done on a foot. drank some lemongrass tea. yummy! visited with my friends and some other super nice ladies. and ended the afternoon by winning a prize!

i also have to mention how much fun it is coming home after being gone for a length of time. i'm like a celebrity. they run and say hi. i get hugs. i get oohs and aahs. they listen to me as if i am about to share some amazing word. that goes for Kristian too! (yeah he is a sweetie)

Kristian had wanted to get out and take the kids to the local bike store, so we did that when i returned home. then he drove off in the opposite direction of home.

a few blocks later, Aidan askes, "where are we going now?"

i replied, "i don't know. Daddy hasn't told me either."

Kristian solves the mystery. "Aidan when you are married and your wife comes home looking amazing, you make sure you take her somewhere special to eat supper."

ahhhh....sigh. is that all i have to do?! this is good to know.

now a perfect ending to this day is to work on some scrapbooking. especially since the kids are sound asleep. and Kristian is enjoying some alone time as well. (our desks are in the same room beside each other, so it is fun to chat while we do our own thing. it reminds me of when we were dating and used to do our homework together...good times.)

spring

has to be coming soon...right?!

i was blogging this morning and came across Leica's blog. she just had a contest asking her readers to say what they LOVE about SPRING. or share layouts they have made. well i'm just trying to get through the winter layouts right now. which is too bad because there are some amazing spring products coming into the stores. but then we just had our little taste of spring on our holiday. the warmer air, the rain, no snowpants or mittens.... i'm inspired. i need to develop some of these photos from our holiday and use some of these fun new papers.

i remember spring on the farm. there were "rivers" everywhere. a couple of times we timed it right and came across a huge river in the south pasture. spring run off was so cool. mud rivers travelling down the driveway. knowing that it would soon be dry enough for riding our bikes again. and there was often a new batch of farm kittens that needed to be divided up between us all.

last spring i looked into our backyard one afternoon as the kids were napping. there was a mini geyser shooting up the trunk of our pear tree. i grabbed the camera and wanted to document this cool spring run-off. i knew it wouldn't last long. warm day...so much snow.... but the water kept flowing. and flowing. this was quite the run-off i thought. then i remembered that i lived in the city. we didn't have run off like this. that was then i noticed the pond in the backyard. hmmmm... checked our south neightbor's yard....still frozen...no pond. checked our north neighbor....same thing...frozen, no pond. uh oh. and the mini-geyser is still flowing!

yeah, something was not right. a phone call to Epcors' emergency number and a quick response confirmed that it was a water main break. thankfully i was home and saw what was happening. in a matter of minutes the yard transformed into what looked like rapidly (very rapidly) melting snow to our personal pond and waterfall.

so it was awhile before we could hang out on our lawn. and then we had mud and dirt everywhere. makes you thankful that we never spent much money on landscaping!

that was only one year ago.

i love these photos of Aidan from last year. they are not the greatest quality. but the humour of him in bike helmet and elbow and knee pads, sitting in his lawn chair, watching Kristian clear the melting snow from the sidewalk just had to be documented. and very "vintage" paper from 2004 or 2005 i think.
and my favourite photos from last spring of Aidan. Kiara was still so young and napped a lot. she pretty much missed these fun parts of spring! if you know me well, you will know my disgust of bugs of any size. i can look at them.....but don't expect me to enjoy it. i put all that aside for a few minutes when i saw this GIGANTIC BEETLE while i was cleaning up the yard. yick! then i call over my naive and excited two year old and get him to check it out. i knew he would like it. he picked it up, and checked it out. the bug even got to ride in one of his trucks. i'm sure that was a treat! then the moment when the bug leaped out of his fingers and down the sleeve of his sweatshirt.....oh my! i am thankful that most of the bugs we have in Alberta are not dangerous and allow curious toddlers to study them. and this was quite the bug. winter was good to it.

side note: we never saw this bug again. i'm sure it hid for cover whenever he saw us coming!

that said....i am READY FOR SPRING!!! enough of snow.

has it been that long

since mommy had a big tummy and i was so little?

i was taking a photo of my layout yesterday and Aidan wanted to hold it for me. he is so sweet.

one day i was taking photos of the baby pages, he put his arm around one of my legs and asked what i was doing. i told him and then asked him not to touch me because i needed to stand still when i take photos. so he grabbed my elbow, wiggled it and asked, "is that better, mommy?" i looked at his face and saw the smirk he was trying to hide. funny little guy. sounds exactly like something Kristian would do.

there are those days when you think being a brick layer on a really hot day would be better than being a mom.

there are those days when they say the cutest things or do something absolutely adorable, and you can't imagine being anywhere else.

it is probably good i have both kinds of days. the rough days make me appreciate the awesome days even more.

today they both have a cold, are whiny and want me to hold them. but just one of them. i can already tell that this will be one of those days. but colds don't last forever. (and i'll take a cold over some of the germies floating around.) i need to remind myself that the day is soon approaching when they won't want my cuddles, and to enjoy these days when that is all they want.

i guess not much else will get completed around here today. but at least i have a good excuse this time! lol