An Update!!!

We hope your Christmas season is full of joy, health, peace, and love. Our year has been a busy one. We had a blast with the Jenner family at Great Wolf Lodge this past spring with the kids. We enjoyed taking the kids to Palmyra this past summer and Ben and I celebrated our fifth anniversary by going to Florida. The best part of our year was spending time on Nona's and Grandpa's boat and tubing up a storm.

We have been keeping super busy with our renovations. We are nearly done and are undecided whether we will stay or sell. Decisions, decisions. Ben continues to work in Life Insurance but has recently been hired as a volunteer firefighter and is more than excited about it. Can we say dream job? Brittany has been keeping busy with the kids and her calling in Young Women’s both in the Stake and Ward. She was able to get away to Florida this past fall without the kids. She enjoyed the sunshine and peace and quiet.

Ava (4) started Junior Kindergarten this past fall and absolutely LOVES school. She is constantly dancing and singing around the house. She takes Acro, Jazz, Tap and Ballet and even tap danced for her class for show and tell! She is such a sweet girl and we are so proud to have her as our daughter.

Our little monkey Ammon (2) is constantly cracking us up with the things he says and does. He misses his sister while she is at school but we keep busy by going to the Early Years Centre with his cousin. He can't wait to be a big boy and take the bus to school like his older sister. We have been enjoying our one on one time while Ava is at school.

 

Fun in the Sun

I haven't posted in so long due to moving! Holy moly we have been sooo busy this summer with getting our house ready to sell, packing and moving. We are now in Huntsville staying at my parents place until late August. We have bought a place but don't close until the end of this month and then we have a ton of work to do before we move in. We don't mind though because my parents have the best set up with a playground and beach! I'm sure they are getting tired of us being here but we're sure not tired from playing outside all day everyday. We have also been busy celebrating Ammon's first birthday, spending time at the Hitchin's, a baby shower, Ben's birthday, discovering new animals, date nights, teaching Ava to swim and spending time with family. I am honestly loving Muskoka! I can't believe how much of my heart I left here as a 12 year old girl. To me, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Ben is loving it too which I am grateful for. He's been getting up early every morning to go kayaking before work. Ben? Waking up before 7? I know! I think Muskoka has changed him for the better. Haha. It still doesn't feel like we 'live' here yet. It feels like we're having a super long visit with my parents. I'm sure it will hit us when we move in to our new place. We are also looking forward to a visit from my Grandma, Uncle, Aunt and cousin from NZ later this summer. They've never met Ben or the kids so we are super excited! I can't believe it's mid July already! Summer is going by way to fast as it always seems to do.

Keeping cool

Baby shower fun!

Ammon playing with his cute gf Zoe.

Ava enjoying the Hitchin's backyard

Uncle Nathan and Ava passed right out

Campfire at Nonna and Grandpa's new house

Building a Despicable Me car

Cute little Maia hard at work

Soo tired she fell asleep at the table

Athen at his 2nd  Birthday Party

Florida etc.

It's been a week since I've been home and I'm afraid if I don't write about our Florida trip I will forget everything. This post will probably consist mainly of pictures but who doesn't like looking at those. The kids did pretty well on the way there. Ava had a bit of a meltdown through security when they had to run her backpack through the scanner. She was on the floor kicking and screaming and I had to drag her through security. Once she had her backpack again she was fine. Ammon was a dream. Thank goodness. He slept most of the way and loved being able to sit with me the entire flight. Ava said that the airplane was "a really nice car" and said she "felt funny in her shirt." She was pretty excited to get to Flo-ri-da and see Nonna.

We had perfect weather and mostly hung out by the pool and shopped. It was glorious. We also had a visit from the Thompson/Lambert clan and had a good time catching up. It was a great trip and were sad to leave but we definitely missed Daddy and were happy to come home to him.

The pics are not in sequence but enjoy anyway!

My cute babies

I just love him

In her towel cacoon

Kisses for Ammon (look at her curls!)

Little Ballerina

Cute little face

In her new dress made by Nonna

My fav little guy

Do you see a resemblance? 

Fun at the park

Kindred spirits

Hanging with Uncle Nathan

Seriously, how cute can one little guy get?

Yes I am white

Ava's kissy face. She automatically did it when Emily pulled out the camera. Haha

Blowing bubbles

I love Florida!

We teased that Ava picked out Dad's outfit.

Walking to the park with one of her besties.

My big girl.

Ammon's first flight

They had a little play center for the kids at the gate.

Lol

Where we spent most of our days

While I was gone, Ben was looking at some houses in the Muskoka area. We have been looking at moving there as we can get a bigger house and feel that is where we need to be. He put an offer in on a house and it went through. I was so excited and I hadn't even seen the place. After further inspection we realized the house would take a lot of time and money to make livable so we offered a lower price to account for the money it would take to fix it. The bank refused our offer and we were very disappointed as it seemed like a perfect place to raise our family. I just have to keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason. I'm sure there is something better suited for us around the corner. As we were driving home from the inspection, Ava threw up in the car. It was such a crappy day. I kept telling myself the Lord won't give me anything I can't handle but I was pretty done at the end of that day.

I'm sad to say that Ammon is sick now as well. He started throwing up Monday evening as the missionaries were over. I don't find it funny that he's sick but the look on the Elders faces were hilarious. The only good thing about a sick baby is the cuddles. My poor little guy. Anyway, we are looking forward to Easter and taking it easy and eating mini eggs.

V-Day and Family Day Weekend

Ben took this past Friday off so that we could head up north a day early which meant we drove up north on Valentines Day. Ben had bought me beautiful roses the day before and we ended going out for sushi on Friday while my Mom put the kids to bed. Thanks Mom! The kids made Ben a cute valentine and Ava picked out a pink monkey for him (herself). I got him some chocolates and my friend had made caramel, snicker, white chocolate apples so I packaged it up all cute and gave it to him. We headed up north after Ben was done work. Ben had a little surprise waiting for me at my Mom's. Emily had set up some cute stuff in the guest room but the highway was closed for about 45 mins so we opted to stay the night at Matthew and Kere's. Poor Ammon was getting so hungry and tired. It was not fun but luckily we were one of the first people back on the hwy. We headed to my parents the next day and had such a fun weekend there. Ben had build an awesome snow hill for my Mom's annual tobogganing party which was a blast. Ava had fun playing with her cousins but was such a grump this weekend. It probably had something to do with her being sick but she was miserable. We celebrated my Mom's birthday and played some hilarious minute to win it games that Emily had organized. We also played a game called "things." I don't think I've laughed so hard in all my life. It was a great weekend spent with my favorite people. I love my family and am grateful to know that families are forever. 

Emily showing Ava how to make a stamp

What was waiting for me the morning after V-day

Cute decor

Ava reading with her Auntie

Minute to Win It

V-Day hair bow

The Run

Cute pie Maia

Here I go!

Ava and Ammon holding hands on the way to Matthew's

Ammon dead asleep on Auntie Emily

Beautiful roses from Ben

Lilah feeding Ammon

Hot Tubbin'

Making forts

Chinese lanterns

Flavoured Marshmallows

Hot Chocolate Bar

Athen eating ice cream cake like a boss

Mother in her true form

Fun with his Auntie

I don't know what's funnier. Lilah sleeping with her eyes open or the fake grapes beside her.

Happy Birthday Mom!