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.

FUNSANITY

The term my Mom used near the close of our family vacation. It is fun but it is insanity. The final chapter of our family time was almost everybody coming up north to our house for the Vermilion fair. Everybody arrived Wednesday evening so we could get up nice and early and head to the Vermilion fair parade. It was quite the gang 53 family members in total for the parade, next it was off to Aunt Tina's for a bbq then the fair for chuck-wagon races.  Friday morning again was early so we could head out to Clear Lake with this time over 60 family members. It was a gorgeous day and everybody had a blast on the boat and playing in the water. We all then came back to our house for a huge pot luck supper with yes all 60 family members. This is where the term funsanity was used by my mother.  Once all the extended family left we ended the evening with some good laughs and fun games. The game with no name was played a few times and a couple rounds of Monopoly deal. This morning Trent and Amber and my mom and Terra's girls all headed home leaving us with Keltie and her gang until tomorrow. It was such a good time and  I love spending time with this crazy huge family of mine.

yes this is all my extended family

Macie has already been to three parades.

the gang at the chuckwagons

loving the lake

watermelon football

THE NEXT STAGE

The next stage of our vacation was going to Waterton on Monday with my sister and my brother and their families.  We went for a nice family hike then had a great picnic, the weather was a little windy which made it no fun for babies but the older kids had a blast. Tuesday we then meet the rest of my family at the Village Square Leisure Centre in Calgary and has a blast at the waterpark. Mom and Dad had all 19 of their grandchildren there including three new babies under 3 months. It then got a little chaotic going back to my sisters house for pizza and a picture of all the grandkids but we managed and somehow everybody got some food.

GLENWOOD DAYS!!!

It has been 8 years since we have been to Glenwood days,  but with some time off Mark and I decided to make the trek down south for some visiting with family and friends and re-living Mark's glory days. We arrived at Dani and Diane's around 3:00 and started with a wiener roast at there house and visiting and catch up. Mark's mother came and brought Corrine's kids and one of Mark's best friend and his wife and there kids showed up as well. After the wiener roast we headed to Glenwood for the very end of the dance and then watched one of the best fireworks display's I have ever seen. Most impressed especially for a town with a population of 300. Saturday was a packed day that started with a pancake breakfast then the shortest, yet cutest parade I have ever been too. Next was off to a talent show at the Glenwood school where Mark went to school for 9 years, then off to spring glen park for beef on a bun, games, and more visiting with friends and family. We ran into so many friends from when we were dating and married and I meet yet more new people that Mark new as a child. It was such a great weekend and definitely need to do this more then every 8 years.

at spring glen park with the Skoien's and Mark's family.

the parade

the talent show, these men where the Glenwood synchronized swimming team that they were sending to the 2012 olympics. This was seriously the funniest thing I have ever seen.