HER FIRST MONTH!!

Kansas first month has been pretty awesome. I don't know how I lucked out and got three babies that are all amazing sleepers, but somehow I did,  at least so far. Kansas is already doing 5-7 hour stretches at night, then eats and goes right back to bed for another 3-5 hours. It has been so wonderful to not feel like a Zombie 24/7 especially when having two other kids to parent. She loves tummy time and snuggles and is always pretty happy and content in the morning and afternoon when she is awake, she does a huge long nap in the afternoon and then is up for 3-4 hours in the evening. She gets a little bit grumpy in the evening and likes to cluster feed and be held the whole time which makes putting the kids to bed a gong show. When Mark's around it is not to bad, but when he is gone trying to get Macie and Wade to sleep has been my biggest challenge. Kansas hates her baths, like scream bloody murder, and she doesn't love at first getting put in her car seat but eventually calms down and either falls asleep or looks around. We have been able to get out lots of mornings and go for walks. She has blocked tear ducts like Macie did and I am putting breast milk in them daily in hopes they will go away a lot sooner then Macie's did. The poor girl still has horrible baby acne, but thankfully she is so cute that it doesn't annoy me too much. Her hair is to dye for and every time we go out I get comments on it. You are a pretty awesome baby Kansas and we are so grateful we decided to have another baby and you came to our home.

A wonderful friend (Jen Isackson Photography) did newborn photos for you and they turned out amazing.  I can't wait to frame them and put some in your bedroom.

This one is my favourite

I asked for this photo to not to edited, as I want to remember the red mark on your forehead and the horrible baby acne you had. 

love that she took some pictures of me and Kansas, I am not very photogenic, but they turned out so good, and I will love having them to look back on. 

DAY DATE!!

When I had been home from the hospital for about a week, my sweet little Macie came upstairs when I was lying in bed and brought me a letter she had written. She had asked if I would go to the Cookie store with her (Sobeys), the French fry store with her (McDonald's) and the Ice Cream store with her (Dairy Queen). Then she said how much she misses spending time with me and misses me taking her to do fun things. My heart sunk a little and I knew this little girl was needing some Mommy time. It also didn't help that I could barley hug them and couldn't get down in her bed to snuggle her to sleep at night. So I promised her once Mommy could drive again that I would take her on a date,  just me and her. So this Tuesday I was finally past 3 weeks post C-Section, So I could finally drive again, Kansas is taking well to a bottle, and Mark was leaving for work on Thursday. So I pumped a bottle in the morning and that afternoon me and Macie headed out for our Mommy/Daughter Day Date. I suggested one change up in the list as she had a lot of junk food ideas on her list, so instead of going to the cookie store we went and got Manicures and Pedicures. It was so nice and relaxing and Macie loved it. Then we hit up McDonalds for some Happy Meals, After McDonald's we went and got a couple of groceries, then went to DQ for Ice Cream. It was so nice spending some quality time with Macie, I almost forgot how nice it is just spending some one on one time with her, she is such a sweet little girl with such a goofball personality. I just love her so much and excited to go on more dates with her and to bring Kansas with us on some Mommy/Daughter road trips.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE AGENCY

I am no one special, I have no degrees, no honors. Although that may dub me the weak and simple  of the world, I cant take claim to being prophetic either*. This past year I have contemplated the principle of free agency. Its always something that we are told is paramount to our spiritual progression, one of Gods greatest gifts to his children. A principle that was fought over in a premortal life.  This principle has never imbedded itself deep into my mind as it has recently, and therefore has not been impactful in my life as it should be. (The same can be said for the principle of being a child of God.) The freedom to choose brings great power into our lives. Just think about those great men and women that have chosen to do the right things all their lives and the massive impact that their choices and experiences has had on people after them. Moses chose to listen to God in the burning bush and return to Egypt. Nephi chose to follow his father in to the wilderness to obey Gods commandment to leave Jerusalem. Of their own free will they made a choice that led them down a path of confidence in their belief in God. As they chose the right, the priesthood that they held was amplified, until it was needed and used. The power to make a choice has so many ramifications that are not just a consequence of the choice or limited to the moment it is made.  As the song goes "choose the right..... be safe through inspirations power...there is peace in righteous doing...there is safety for the soul*
This past weekend, I witnessed the power of free agency. I saw it in the temple when a brave young woman made a very hard decision. At a time of great pressure, when a weaker son or daughter would have just went the easier way in the moment. This awesome girl who was sitting across the alter from her husband to be, did not have the spirit of joy that should come at this point, she took the higher road and listened to her heart. She was not ready to make the commitment required. This choice will empower her for years to come. In the future when she will face difficult decisions, she can look back on that event, when the easier choice at that moment was to say yes, to please her fiancé, to satisfy the guests who came to celebrate, she can hold her head high and have confidence to take the path less trodden and know that it will work out.


It is like that for all of us, if we use this free gift to make the hard choices that are based on rock solid principles that we know to be absolutely true. This starts with the simple choices, like choosing to pray daily, reading scriptures often, ponderizing spiritual insights, making the most of the Sabbath day. All these things will add power to our lives. It seams as a person gets on in age, no matter the decade, having strength and power banked up is immeasurable. During these last days, when there will be many who will say "lo here is Christ or there" *, or "take advantage of your neighbor" * if we yield to these paths of ease, we will fall, and lose our confidence in ourselves and our ability to make optimum choices that bring so much power and enjoyment into our lives and in the eternities.


I don't know who will read this, whether is just my children or family, but my hope is that we look deep with in ourselves and find the power to make the choices that bring about much good now and in generations to come.





*1 D&C 1:23
*2 Hymn 239
*3 Matt 24:23
*4 2Nephi 28:8

JURASSIC FORREST

Since we moved up to Cold Lake, we have heard about Jurassic Forrest and how it would make a good trip for any dinosaur lover. Wade being a dinosaur lover, we finally made plan to go for a visit.

Mom and Dad gave the kids a few months to prepare to go, work and save money. They tried so hard to earn money for Jurassic Forrest. The date was set and so we waited day by day. The forecast for our trip looked like it was going to be a wet one, and so the night before we left, we told the kids the weather might not allow us to go to Jurassic Forrest. They were quite devastated to say the least.

Well there was a break in the rain in the morning so we said lets go for it. Packed up early and headed out. It turns out, that we hit the break in the weather perfectly and were able to enjoy the morning looking at dinosaurs. Holy cow its a good thing we had bug stray though, wow the mosquitos were bad. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of the mighty T-rex, I am not sure how we missed the big attraction, I guess just living in the moment.  And after the tour of Jurassic Forrest, what trip to Edmonton can be complete with out a nice meal at a restaurant that is not found in Cold lake.

                                  Macie looking for fossils in the rain with a  BBQ sauce brush

mom is super pregnant

 Wade found what we has looking for.. a looney glued to the femur!!!

Elders Quorum Barbarian Night

Total Success

After  months of planning and talking it up, we did it. Most guns and ammunition at a church event since the mountain meadow massacre.
Rob Bunnage hosted the event and had a good arsenal to choose from, as well many brethren brought  more than enough guns to make any shooting enthusiast drool.

There were tons of targets, skeets and bullets. It was a blast.

Corey Ellis, Peter Cardinal, Jeff Burgess enjoying some steak after a hard day of shooting

Post Baby: Dad and the Firstlings

Since Kansas got home, dad has tried super hard to keep Macie and Wade busy.

Take kids to provincial park:We did our hike through the provincial park trail. The water level of Cold Lake was really high. Our trek along the beach had gotten a little tight with the water and the bushes. We walked to the campground park and played on the play ground. This was the first time the kids nailed the monkey bars. Macie did all of them first, start to finish and landed on the other side. No help from dad. Wade started with some trepidation and help from dad, but eventually he nailed it with one arm swings. Good way to prepare for gymnastics

On our hike back to the vehicle, we stopped by the camp checking booth and bought some ice-cream and enjoyed it on the remaining walk.

Trip to Lloyd

The 3 of us went to Lloyd to do some Lakeland College Business and hit up the petting zoo. At the college we ran into our good friend Brandi Leavitt Mandes. Kids fell in love with her all over again. She hung out with them for a bit and took them to bud miller on her brake. Kids had an absolute blast.

At the petting zoo the kids ran from animal to animal. Wade loved the alligator by far the best. Macie loved to feed the goats and camel. The new Zebra did not get much of our attention. We did see all of the animals except the baby wolf.  Daddy liked to feed the tortoise's.  

Last of all we stopped by the border markers as who knows when we will see these again for a very long time.

Wade was playing shy.

It was a long day and the ride home started very loud, but ended up nice and quiet.

We have had some good times so far, lets hope for many more great days.