OBSERVING

Tonight I decided to change things up a bit and put Macie to bed a little bit earlier then usual, she is such a good sleeper and usually goes to bed at 9 wakes up around 4 or 5 for a feed then back to bed until about 7:30, which is perfect for me as I usually  head to bed around 10:00 get 5 or 6 hours of sleep wake up fed her then back to bed for another 2 to 3 hours. It is the perfect amount of sleep for me and I hardly ever need to nap during the day which makes it nice to have the time to get other things done when Macie naps. Anyways so tonight I decided to up her bedtime to 8:00 as the past couple of days she has been sleeping longer, this morning she was not awake again until about 9:30 which throws off so much of my day and her day as usually her first nap starts around that time. So today she only had one long nap instead of two naps. So we had an earlier bath tonight and a long feed at 7:00 then snuggled for a bit until 8:00 came around. Then I took her upstairs to her bed, layed her in it, sang her a song, kissed her on the forhead, then turned off the light and headed out of her bedroom while almost closing the door behind me. I thought it would be fun to watch her fall asleep as I knew it might take a little longer tonight to fall asleep with going to bed 1 hr earlier. I had the door open just a crack and watched my little sweetheart not make a single peep but move from stomach to back about 10 times, all over the bed with her head sometimes at the front of the bed, sometimes at the side and sometimes in the middle. Her arms sometimes hanged out of the crib and were sometimes tucked under her tummy. She was honestly all over the place it was so cute and so funny, she was also looking all over the place, but luckily did not spot me observing her. The best part though was how she did not make a sound the whole entire time. Finally after 10 minutes of watching her I had to go and get my work out in. After I was done I came upstairs to get some water when she started crying, I go in to see what was wrong and she was totally turned the opposite way with no covers and her arms stuck in a funny position, I picked her up gave her a sweet hug then placed her back in bed, she fell right back to sleep and is hopefully out for the night. It was so fun to watch her and I was so amazed at how she could so peacefully, yet not peacefully put herself to sleep.

METIS CROSSING

some delicious bannock

Mark's amazing Dream Catcher

Dalton, Me, Mark, Big Mark, and Aunt Rhonda

the shrooms in Vilna

the huge man in Elk Point Peter Fidler stands 34 feet tall

at the start of the day ready for a big long trip

Today we decided to pack up our truck and head to an Alberta Historical Site "Metis Crossing". We meet Mark's Aunt Rhonda, her husband Mark and there soon Dalton there as well. It was there first time meeting Macie and they were of course smitten right away with that adorable smile of hers. We had so much fun the day started with a tour of Metis Crossing and learning about Buffalo, Red River Carts, how the Metis loved the violin and watched a young men do a traditional Metis Dance. While I feed Macie everybody else went on a medicine walk and learned what plants we can use in nature to help heal our bodies. Next we made some delicious bannock on a stick by the fire, then finished our Metis Crossing experience by making dream catchers and friendship bracelets. It was such an enjoyable experience and Macie was such a  good girl seeing as the wind was so crazy. We finished our trip by having a delicious picnic that Aunt Rhonda made. On the way home we stopped at a couple of towns that had cool monuments. In smoky Lake we got pictures by some huge pumpkins. In Elk Point we got a picture with a huge man carved out of trees, in Vilna we stopped and Mark got his picture taken by some huge mushrooms and in St. Paul we visited the UFO landing sight.  Such a great day and we hope to take Macie on more of these fun day trips.

12 hours

Last night my little girl slept for 12 hours without waking up once. glory glory hallelujiah. The longest she has done before this is 9 1/2. She usually does 8 wakes up eats then is back in bed for another 3 hours. Thank you Macie for such a good sleep last night. We shall see if this is a permanent thing or not.

F.H.E

Tonights F.H.E. we decided to have a quick song and lesson and then take Macie in the Hot Tub for the first time, she loved it and had a blast.

Motherhood

I remember when I was about 14 weeks pregnant with Macie and everything was looking good, the comments and thoughts from people came daily.

- your life will never be the same
- say goodbye to your life
- you will never get a good nights sleep again
- oh the money and time you will spend on diapers
- you will have no time to yourself anymore
- be prepared for a screaming, crying, child that spits up all the time
- don't spend money on cute clothes, they just spit up on them, poop and them and grow out of them so quickly

I have never been given so much advice in my life while I was pregnant and even know as a mom

- don't let them cry themselves to sleep, they need to be comforted
- let them cry themselves to sleep
- bundle them up like crazy whenever you go out
- don't over heat them by bundling them up to much
- don't cross your legs it hurts the baby
- don't eat this that and the next thing
- don't work out or push yourself to hard
- start feeding her pablum at 3 months
- baby can not eat food until 6 months
- why do you breastfeed for so long
- she only eats for 20 minutes, she should be eating longer then that when she feeds

I could go on and on and on and on and on with the amount of mix messages I got and negative comments people gave me about being a mom, but with hoping to not be offensive to anyone I would love to share my thoughts on being a mother.

Being a mother to Macie is the most wonderful, amazing, incredible, exciting, enjoyable experience of my life. There is nothing about it that is hard, overwhelming, stressful, annoying, or makes me mad. When she wakes up at 5:00 in the morning my heart starts pounding out of the excitement I feel to start another day with my girl. She eats and quickly falls back asleep for another 3 hours, when she awakes from that sleep to start her morning I leap out of bed to go in and get her as it is received with the biggest smiles and greatest hugs. We then usual get dressed, eat our breakfast and play in her room. I think this is just as exciting for me as it is for her, the smiles and giggles I get as we sing songs, make funny faces, and I give her soft gentle tickles and lots of wet kisses is priceless. Diaper changing throughout the day is never annoying as it means I get to blow on her tummy and wiggle her legs and get more smiles and giggles that melt my heart.  There was one point when breastfeeding annoyed me, but as I get closer and closer to going back to work everyday I am starting to cherish those sweet tender moments I have with her. Macie is definitely not perfect and she has her moments when she is fussy, spitting up, not eating well and waking up every 2 hours at night time. However I find when those moments happen all it does is make me appreciate Macie even more that these occurances are very rare that 90% of the time this little girl of mine is pretty wonderful. When Mark and I were having our struggles at getting pregnant I once had someone say to me just enjoy this time, be grateful you are not tied down, I am so jealous of you, you get to do what you want, have money for vacations and clothes and fun, have time to go to movies, workout and enjoy life. It is true we did get to do those things and I did try to enjoy my life the best I could and tried my best to not be down about not being a mother, but to that person you are a fool, there is no greater thing in the world, no experience that makes me feel closer to my Savior, and nothing that brings me more joy then being a Mother to Macie. It is worth the lose skin that might never go away around my stomach, the sleeps I have lost over the last 4 1/2 months and the future sleep I will lose, if I never get to see another movie again in my life I could care less, and if this half marathon of mine does not happen oh well. I would not trade being a mother for anything in this world. I LOVE it and I LOVE her and will never be able to thank my Savior enough for allowing me to be a Mother to one of his most precious daughters. There truly is no greater calling.

So Happy Mothers Day to Me and every other Mom out there

LITTLE HELPER!!!

seriously how am I ever going to say no to this face

Today Macie you helped Mom bake cookies for the first time, you were so cute in your little apron that Sis Heather Onofrychuk made for you. You watched with such intensity as mom put all the ingredients in the bowl and stirred  and placed it on the baking sheet. I can tell you are going to love to help mom and dad around the house as you get older.

Mother's Day Came Early

Yesterday a package arrived at the door address to me. I knew I had not ordered anything recently so was very curious as to what this might be, upon opening the package I was surprised to find My Mothers Day Gift in there. A mini IPod Nano from Mark and Macie. It is awesome, my favorite color blue and on the back it is enscribed saying "To The BEST MOM EVER"  You did well Mark you did very well. 

SINGING TIME

classic Macie face

already for her first singing class

Today Macie and me went to our first Mom and tots sing time. It was so much fun and Macie loved singing and dancing, she was the youngest one there. Macie loved it when we did this one song where I would hold her and we would dance around in circles, side to side, and up and down she smiled the whole time and got in some good giggles. It was so nice to get out of the house and meet some new people and learn some new songs to sing with Macie. If ever my little girl is sad all I have to do is sing to her and it cheers her right up.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

Macie with Grandpa and Grandma before church

The willoughby's if you lived in Lloyd you new this amazing family they now live in Lacombe

I have always loved this story in the scriptures, it has long been a favorite since I first read and learned about him. This weekend I was able to meet one of those good Samaritan's, those true honest good people that do good for others without even thinking twice. This past Sunday I had an Opticians conference in Red Deer so we thought we would make a weekend out of it and visit my mom and dad. It was a great weekend with beating mom and dad at rook I think it was 5 times in a row, swimming at the awesome Ponoka swimming pool and of course spoiling Macie with hugs, kisses and attention. Macie has grown quit found of her granmda and grandpa very quickly loving snuggles with grandma and laughing and giggling with grandpa.  So the weekend was going wonderfully until Sunday after church I quickly feed Macie then passed her on to my mom and dad to watch her while Mark and I headed to Red Deer for my conference, half way to red deer I realized I did not have my wallet and I remembered taking it out of the diaper bag I thought I just left it in my parents car when I went to say good bye to Macie, on the way home from Red Deer I thought I would give mom and dad a quick call to make sure it was in the car, unfortunately it wasn't. I had to rack my brain and try and figure out where I might have put it, I then realized there was two options 1. I left it in the church building, or 2. I put it on top of my parents car when I went to say bye to Macie and forget it there. option 2 was sounding more and more familiar in my head the closer we got to Lacome. I said a quick prayer asking Heavenly father to help me find my wallet thinking it would not be answered as Mark and I had to break the sabbath for some lunch, still I prayed hoping for a miracle. When we arrived at the church I had a feeling to check my messages on the home phone number I don't know why just felt impressed. When I called there was a message on our home phone from a lady and her husband that were driving on the highway and saw this bright green wallet that looked fairly new, they pulled over on the highway picked it up 411'd my phone number from my drivers license and left a message saying they had my wallet and it was intact and everything was still there including the $150 I had in there. All I can say is thank goodness that there are good people in this world random strangers who took time out of there life to help another, someone they have never meet but knew life for them would suck if they did not get that wallet back. I also learn more and more every day and with every miracle how much my Savior loves me it is amazing and unbelievable some times, even when I am sinning and being imperfect he still loves me and answers my prayers.

What is the Cost of TRUST

As we are guilty of a little bit of guile from time to time, it is hard to believe such treachery to exist with in family.
Sharing somethings in confidence with those who you love and trust should never be passed on. Passing it on is the very essence of deceit.
Trust is a very fragile thing, which takes lots of time to build, and can be lost in seconds. How we value trust will depend on many things. I have lost the trust of those who I care about, and seeing that pain and anguish when it was lost, was enough for me to work very hard at regaining it. To regain it has taken a very long time and still is never what it was before it was lost. It seams that sometimes trust is not valued until it is lost. 
As a society, we have many reasons to lose trust in others. It happens daily. One word; " Politicians"
As lies, infidelity and corruptions continue to surface in exponential numbers among the leaders of nations it is a wonder that anyone cares enough to vote anymore because of the loss of trust that has been etched on our minds.

But, when someone close to us burns us by sharing it unauthorized with others, it is more than etched in our minds, it is branded in our hearts. That person is "out of the circle of trust."

However,  as a trustworthy politician is the exception rather than the rule this should not be the case with family members. (unless your family member is a politician) When confidences are shared with family, this information should be used wisely, as it's cost is only the trust of others.

What is Trust worth to you?

I am no better at this than anyone else.

May we value our friends and family enough.
May we listen with our hearts, and keep those ear-fulls to ourselves to maintain our sacred relationships throughout the eternities......