A SNEAK PEAK

BEFORE

a little happier now that life is starting to feel more normal

AFTER

okay a lot happier

Hello fun backyard for us to play in, Macie already loves the little kiddie swing

So there are already so many reasons I love this house better and Lloydminster better, but to pay some respect to the old house first I will list the things I miss about it.
#1 of course without fail the Hot Tub
#2 That Mine room, Macie's room and the bathroom were so close together, I know as that gets older it will change, but while she is little it was so nice to be able to put her in her room to play while I got ready.
#3 Going for walks at night. Even with Mark I don't know if I would feel safe going on walks after dark. In Kitscoty I felt safe going by myself, although after my incident in Lethbridge if it was really dark and really late I wanted Mark to go with me.
#4 The traffic was much calmer in Kitscoty
#5 our neighbours.

What I love about being back in Lloydminster and this new house I Could go on and on and on, here are just a few things
-a fenced in backyard
-a walk in closet, and ensuite
- 3 bedrooms upstairs
-a way bigger master bedroom
- that everything is 2 minutes away. Today I am walking to staples with Macie and then walmart for groceries. Glorious is what it is
- newer appliances
- the feel of a newer house and that everything is more modern and nicer looking
- my bigger backyard, not only is it fenced in but it is bigger
- and again that everything is 2 minutes away. That is without a doubt the best part.

Love the new house and Love being in Lloyd. I am repainting all of the walls and will show more pictures of the house as I get them all done. Up next is the den. 

Could it get any worse

This poor little girl is not only dealing with an endless irritated eye, this past week she has gotten a runny nose that just won't go away. To make matters worse we moved these past two days, plus I have been painting so her life and our house is in total and complete chaos. Oh and to top it off she is getting her first tooth. Lets just say this week for her and myself has been a long one.

could this be anymore pathetic

8 MONTHS

It is blowing my mind how quickly Macie is growing up, time is definitely going by way to fast, and I need to get even better at taking time to appreciate the little things with Macie, like hugs, and giggles, and smiles.

Macie at 8 months:
- Has been crawling for about a month now, is a slow crawler, but gets wherever she wants. I hope this means she will be one that takes her time and enjoys life and is not always in the fast lane like so many of us.
- Is starting to say Mama, mom, mmmmmuuuuummmmmm. I can't wait for her to connect that word to me.
- Is such a good little eater. She loves broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, chick peas, kidney beans, greek yogurt mixed with strawberries and spinach, and every fruit on the planet. She loves her pablum, mama's milk, rice husks, and cherrios. I have to mix all of her meat in with her vegatables in order for her to eat it, and for some silly reason she is not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, I know what baby doesn't like sweet potatoes. She also isn't a huge fan of asparagous, and squash.
- Is a great sleeper and is up every morning around 7:30. So if I have her in bed by 8:00 every night she almost does a full 12 hours. Still struggles a bit when we sleep on the road, but I will take it to have a fabulous crib sleeper.
- Loves to walk, with of course help from mom and dad. I think my predictions were right in thinking she would be a late crawler and an early walker. She didn't crawl late, but definitely not early, but everyday she makes more and more strides towards walking. The last two days she has taken two small steps on her own but then realizes what is going on and falls into my arms.
- Puts a smile on for anybody and everybody, super friendly little girl, but I have noticed when we are out of her comfort zone she likes to be held by mommy while being super friendly. Which if I am being honest doesn't hurt my feelings.
- Loves play time, especially when we play toss with her balls
- Enjoys story time and sing time
- but especially loves just finding things to climb on and pull herself up on.
- definitely has blonde hair, which is super cute right now with her small baby tan
- loves to go for walks in her baby backpack my mom and dad got us. She loves to just look around at nature and everything going on outside.  If I don't take her outside at least once a day on a walk or playing in our backyard she gets grumpy.
- Is super cleangy around 4-6 everyday which does not help with trying to make super.
- still has terrible goopy, red burning eyes. No matter what I do it does not go away. I feel so bad for her. 
- and of course is still the most adorable, sweetest, cutest little girl in her mommy and daddy's eyes.

Mom and Dad:
- moving in 7 days. yay can't wait to be back in Lloydminster
- Mark is getting ready to going back to teaching, got released from Young Mens and is now the Branch Mission leader, and being a fabulous father and husband.
- I have been a bit of a lazy bum lately, and haven't done much of anything except pack our house and watch the olympics, and take care of my little one.

Molly and Lily:
- growing more and more found of this little girl everyday. Lily did the cutest thing the other day, Macie hit her head on a toy of hers and started crying really loud, Lily came running down the stairs and started giving her kisses and was making her she was ok. So adorable.

you can really see how bad her eyes are in this picture

is watching for Molly and Lily to come running into her bedroom

stink they are cute

loves to put her head into the dogs for kisses

FIRST DATE NIGHT!!!

Yay finally, Mark and I got to go on our very first date since having the little munchkin. Saturday was a good friend from Marks work 30th Birthday. So we headed to the legion for a big birthday bash. We didn't stay to long as we only had the babysitter for 2 hours and needed to get some groceries, but it was so nice to be out just the two of us. We then headed home and finished our date night by watching the Hunger Games outside on our deck, while siting in the hot tub. Such a great night and can't wait for lots more of these nights once we move into Lloydminster.

Best Little Girl

Yesterday was my Grandfathers funeral and I don't wish to write my feelings here, but in my personal journal. I wanted to say how beautiful it was and what a wonderful job everybody did that was involved, and how unbelievably grateful I am for the amazing little girl Macie was. She was quiet and good the whole entire service which was 2 hours, so that I could be there and hear all the wonderful things said about my grandpa, and was also amazing at the cemetery. Thank you Macie for being so good at a time I really really needed you to be.

I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Alright all you moms out there who told me there is no way you will be able to go back to work full time when the time comes. Well you were right and I was wrong there I admit it. About 6 weeks ago I went to work sat down with the manager and told her I would like 4 days a week. In my mind this was perfect, Macie would only be in a day home one week 2 days  and the next week 3 days.  I felt good about that and thought I would like being back at work and bringing in some good money again. Well 3 weeks ago I was sitting in bed nursing Macie and I started bawling. The thought of not being at home with Macie all the time was so heartbreaking. I love this little girl more then anything and I new at that moment I was not going to be able to do this. I fought it for a while, but finally I broke down and had to tell Mark, we talked about it for a while and finally came to the conclusion that I would not be going back to work full time, but two days a week. I called my boss and we went for a nice long walk and I told her how I was feeling. Thank goodness my work is amazing and they totally understood. They have agreed to let me come back two days a week. Every Tuesday from 11-7 and Friday from 9-5. I am so excited to have those two days a week to do a job I love and spend time with adults and people I love. I am excited Macie will get one day a week with just her and her dad, and I am excited that Macie will hopefully feel like one day a week she goes to a friends house for a play date, but what I am really excited about is that 5 days a week I am at home all day with my little girl. As of right now this scenario feels like perfection to me.

WE WILL MEET AGAIN!!

His smile was priceless!!!

CLAP YOUR HANDS!!

The past couple of weeks I have been trying to teach Macie how to clap her hands. The other day she finally did it as I clapped with her, but today was super cute. We were downstairs watching the Olympics and playing when Molly came down and lied on the blanket, Macie saw her and started clapping. I guess she thought Molly snuggling on a blanket was clap worthy.

IT STILL FITS!!

thought Macie looked darling here, and yes that is a pink sports bra on underneath

loved this pic of my dress here.

The other day Mark and I were packing up the basement when I came upon my wedding dress. I decided to give it a try on, thinking it should still fit as I actually weigh less now then I did when Mark and I were first married. Low and behold it fit. Mark thought it would be cute to then put Macie in her blessing dress and get pictures of us. It was fun and cute and wish I had done my hair nicer that day and had some make up on but oh well. Still love the pics of us in our white dresses.

INSPIRATION

OSCAR PISTORIUS

This Man is the epitome of that word, and his picture is going on my wall to Inspire me to accomplish all of my hopes and my dreams.

HARMEN FEENSTRA

Doesn't that name just sound strong. I love that name and the man who carries it.

This past weekend my Grandpa Feenstra was badly burnt while we was working in his shop, he got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his arms and is in need of skin grafts, however he is 88 years old and although the toughest 88 year old I know he is still 88 years old.
I have thought about him a lot this week and all my favorite memories of him so before I get to be 88 I would love to share some of my most favorite.

-  Little history lesson first, my family all bought some land when I was little and my mom and her four sisters all built houses and lived there. We were the first to move but had 4 awesome, fun years there with all of my extended family. My grandpa was divorced from my grandma so he came and lived on the farm with my Aunt Rose and Uncle John and he worked the land. My extended family was very big and there was a total of 17 cousins living on this farm. Bad luck of the draw though and the closest girl cousin my age was 5 years older then me and then 4 years younger then me, with lots and lots of boys in between. They were pretty decent at letting me play with them and sometimes my sweet older cousin Julie would come play barbies with me, and sometimes I would be sweet to my little cousin Laura and go play games with her, but there were many many summer days of me all by myself on this big farm with nobody to play with, so the only other person to hang out with was my sweet Grandpa Harmen, and that didn't upset me at all. Many many summer mornings I would walk down to his work shops and try and find where he was working, once I found him the conversations began. He always had the time to talk with me and laugh with me, as I am older now I appreciate it even more as I am sure he was a very busy man. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but I remember always watching him and looking at him and thinking this is the most strongest, bravest, greatest man I know. A part of me was always kind of nervous around him at first, like how could this smart, strong, and amazing of a man love me and want to spend time with me, but as the conversations flew all my worries went away and I just would sit there and marvel at him. This is by far my favorite memory and as I look back now I am so grateful for not having girl cousins my age as I would have missed out on a lot of those sweet moments just me and him had together.

- my next favorite memory would be at church on Sundays, I would always be looking for Grandpa and the moment I saw him I would run up to him and give him the biggest hug. If it was before church I remember always asking him to come sit with us and if it was after church I never left his side until it was time to go. There was an underlining reason of course. If anybody has meet my Grandpa and has been to church with him, I am sure you can remember the briefcase he always carried around with him. In it contained a hymn book, his scriptures, there was always some sort of papers in there, and the best part Chocolates. I can't remember the name of them but I loved them and if he sat by me in church he would always sneak me a few, or a couple after church if I found him then. I also always wanted to sit with him because I remember again always thinking he was the greatest man and lots of the girls in our ward would call him Grandpa and loved him too, but I always liked to remind them that he really was my Grandpa.

- My last memory I am going to share is one I didn't know about until I was a little bit older about 13 or 14. We were at other one of our traditional Feenstra family Christmas concerts or it was one of my Grandpa's birthdays. For some reason I am thinking it was one of his Birthdays like his 70th. Anyways we were all together as a family on the farm and one of my Aunt's asked Granpda if he would Yodel for us. I had never heard Yodeling before but the fun, sweet tune that came out of his voice was incredible and definitely something I will never forget. It was without a doubt in my mind when my Grandpa went from being tough, brave, handsome, and amazing, to now the coolest Man in the world.

Grandpa at the Hospital with all his 5 daughters and son

I am so grateful to have this man as my Grandpa, he has not only been all of these wonderful things I have talked about, but as well a wonderful priesthood holder and member of the church. He has always been the best example for our family as to how to live the gospel righteously. As well I should mention the wonderful father he is and the amazing job he did of raising 6 outstanding children. My Aunt Rose, My mother (Brenda), My Aunt Shirley, my Auntie Jane, Uncle Tys, and Aunt Tina.

the handsome young man to the right is my Grandpa Feenstra

SUNDAY

A Sunday morning

notice the box of toys beside her, yet she would rather play with her wipes holder.

A Sunday Afternoon

a pretty white dress covered in Mangoes.

BRINGS ME JOY!!!

There are a couple of things that have brought me so much joy these past couple of weeks...

#1 my little girl started crawling about two weeks ago and is all over the place now. I can't believe we are already here and at this stage of her life. Today she also wowed me by letting go of my hands while she was standing and stood on her own for about 5 seconds. It was so cute to see how proud of herself she was.

#2 was the last couple of nights I have gone for a walk while the sun was starting to set so it was a little dark outside and I could see into peoples homes that were watching T.V. and I kid you not, every T.V. that I saw on was watching the Olympics. It brings me such joy knowing that truly the whole world is cheering on these athletes. The huge amount of training I put into my half marathon does not even come close in comparison to what these athletes do to make it to the Olympics, they are such an inspiration to us all. Today was even more amazing as I watched our Canadian team win our first gold medal.