iPhone photos

I take probably too many pictures with my iPhone. These, I like to think are taken in addition to what i would normally take with my good camera- not usually replacing them.
Here are some recent ones:

Bella's prayer

Tonight when I was tucking Bella into bed, she reminded me that she'd like to say prayers.  I generally find out what she want to pray about, then I say something, and she repeats it...  Tonight, I let her take it away!

Isabella:

Dear God

Thank you for today.

Please heal my ear. 

Tonight, please don't let Ben wake up.

And me.

And don't let Lucy wake up.

And Antarctica.

And Australia.

And North America.

The End.

(extra info- her earpiercing is a little infected, she doesn't like when Ben wakes her up in the night, and she knows we don't like when she wakes us up in the night.  Lucy is an old school friend, that she hasn't seen since June, but still talks about.  And it looks like she knows her continents.  I hid my giggles in my prayer hands at the end)

Family Day

Yet, another Holiday
(I'm not so sure how much of a holiday it is.. but kids get the day off school, and some people get the day off work, or get paid more to work)
Yay! For living in Ontario.

This was another fun one for us as a Family.

Dan took the kiddies outside (while I seemed to be on the phone all morning).  Then I joined them.  After all, it was FAMILY day.. not cool dad, lazy mom day.

This is where I brag about my husband.
He's a fantastic dad.  He's fun and creative. And has more energy than I do some days.

I went outside, and he had the backyard shoveled into pathways (keep in mind we have a BIG backyard).
He had piled snow in an igloo like structure.  Then, we all filled up buckets and tubs with snow (like you would to make a sand castle) and improved on our igloo.  Dan even put one of my summer metal garden flowers up as decoration, and a door mat!
He also piled more snow - with steps, and two different sized snow slides.
(and yes... we still have our lawn mower out. why? not sure. but it wouldn't budge)

On top of it all, the weather was PERFECT! Snowy. Warm. Sunny (the kids even had their mittens off).

Okay, enough talk.... more pictures.

lunch (first course)
in what Bella calls her
Snow Tent :)

Then I got Bellie to help me with a little photoshoot, for my photography class.  They aren't the best pics, but as a mom, some are just too adorable.

xoxoxo

I 

HEART 

my family

SO 

stinkin

much

xo

The making of V-Day cards

One thing I love about being a mommy is that I have the ability to make holidays special.

Some people are cynical about holidays like Valentines.

NOT me. 

It's great that we have the opportunity to make days memorable for our kids- to involve them, to be creative, to capture "teachable moments" and to help them to find the joy.

We talked about love all day. 

Precious. 

Isabella made cards for her friends/classmates and babysitter.

Ben made cards too. 

Bella's cards were loosely inspired by something I saw on pintrest... with two finger prints making a heart.

And the inside was inspired by other cards online where there was a picture of a kid holding a sucker. 

(I tried to find the original link and can't. Sorry)

Bella drew herself holding a sucker- giving it to a friend (tough to see, I know).

 And the bands of red scrapbook paper were covering up a "Thank you" (these were extra thank you cards printed for our wedding- finally re-purposed 4.5 years later!)

Valentines Day 2012

Here are some iPhone pics from this valentines.
I'm not sure what order they will appear in...
But we started the day with pink heart shaped pancakes, and circle ones with Gogi berries. We took Bella to school with a bag of homemade cards for her friends.
Dan and Ben practiced a little hockey in the kitchen.
I took Ben to town for a little running around and a date. He drank his whole smoothie before he even touched his yummy macaroon.
After school and dinner our babysitter came over (straight from the hospital on crutches) and Dan and I went out for dinner. (how dedicated is she?!)
It was so nice to get out with him! It seems like it's been ages.
At the end of the night our sitter told me that Bella was helpful, thankfully Ben put himself to bed in his crib, and when they read a veggie tales book before bed, Bella pointed out that both the veggies and our sitter can't walk (veggies don't have legs) and have to hop to get around! ;)

Also, both Dan and Ben bought me flowers! (and Ben bought Bella some- which she mostly re-gifted to him!)

A few new pics added:

Pink tea with breakfast.
David's Tea. Forever Nuts. We all love it.