Ouch !!!

The past couple weeks has been quite different for me. Typically I go go go all day and never have time to just sit around. Honestly, I quite like staying busy.

Last weekend we had a nice weekend watching conference. As usual the talks were uplifting and inspiring. Sunday evening, I decided, that is it! We need to be better at family scripture study. We piled into Hudson's room and I read some scriptures. Right as everyone was coming into the room I felt a sharp intense pain on my right side. I thought maybe it was a cramp, so I kind of stretched it, which did NOT help at all. I thought maybe a bath would help, and it felt good, but when I got out, I almost passed out as the pain was so intense. I got dressed and was in so much pain I started crawling. Shane started panicking saying it was my appendix(I had a hunch it was too) and called a friend to take me to energ.

We went and waited until after one in the morning , over four hours, and I was SO uncomfortable, I decided to go home and see how I felt in the morning.
In the morning, I figured I would just go to the walk in clinic. I thought they would be faster. I was again very very uncomfortable, and after 2 and a half hours I saw the doctor, who....sent me over to emerg again. As I arrived I honestly just wanted to cry. There was standing room only. I only had 40 percent on my battery and I was very uncomfortable. I knew it was going to be a long day. After about 5 hours I got called back and waited, waited waited, got some blood work, waited waited, got an ultrasound, then finally just after midnight I had an appendectomy. I swear my butt hurt worse than anything from sitting in the uncomfortable chairs.

I had a bit of a creepy experience. I totally woke up during the surgery. I could feel them cutting and tried to talk, but I had a tube in my throat. Then I went to wave my hand, and realized I was strapped down-ahhh. I started banging my hand on the table, and I heard the nurse say, "oh, she is banging her hand". I was panicking, cause I wanted them to know why I was banging it. Eventually she saw my eye open and then I only remember her calling the anesthetist over and going back out. It was pretty creepy.

The surgery was laparoscopic, so I was not expecting much pain, but holy! I was hurting bad for the first two days. Shane was pretty much the most AMAZING nurse ever and took really good care of me, and balanced out kids as well. He really is the best. I sure love him! I started feeling much better each day after the third day. The abdominal discomfort was exchanged for a whole different discomfort. I had an allergic reaction to one of the drugs I was given and broke out in the worst, itchiest hives head to toe. I was insane. I thought I was going to skin myself alive. After a few more hours of waiting at doctors offices, I was able to get some prednisone and that helped with the hives.
As soon as people from our ward found out I was sick, they really stepped up. I have been really blessed with amazing visiting teachers here in Beaumont(Lindsey Hill and Jenn Bevans) who brought delicious meals and really really helped us out. Cassie Doyle took Fletcher Thursday and Friday, which was literally a life saver, because, I was not quite moving fast enough to keep up with him. Cassie also brought us a dinner as well. I can't even begin to express what these acts of service meant to me and my family. Cherie came and watched the boys Tuesday so Shane could come and pick me up from the hospital, which again, we are so thankful for. Sadly er do not have the luxury of having parents around (or willing) to come and help in these situations, so I am really really thankful for these ladies!!!!

So that whole week, I ended up watching a lot of HGTV and wishing for my good health and mobility back.

From January until the end of March we were very very blessed to have Cody staying with us. Just writing about it chokes me up as I loved having him around and so did my kids and Shane. We love him very much and loved hearing all of his mission stories as well ans the YSA shenanigans. He is a wonderful person and I am so so proud to be his Aunt. Little Fletcher probably misses him the most. He would call him Pokey, and would halt whatever he was doing if he heard the door open and Pokey was home. They truly became buds.
 Things are starting to settle back down  and I am mostly back up to speed. I still get pains in my abdo when I am overdoing it, so I am trying to be careful.
This weekend is Easter weekend. I am so thankful that we will have a sweet weekend together as family. I love my time with my kids and love how spiritual they are. I am glad that we will be able to celebrate the resurrection of the Savior. I really am just so so thankful for my beautiful family. I could never give enough lip service to the feelings I have in my heart when I think of my family. They are absolutely everything to me. I am so glad that I have a best friend who loves me and takes such good care of me, and forces me to go to emerg, even when I really don't want too-haha.

It's great to be 8

Our family had a huge event this past week. Our sweet Hudson got baptized! Feb 21, Hudson turned 8. I  just can't even believe it. My first baby.

Hudson typically is not interested in doing birthday parties with friends, so we just do our best to make him feel special and loved at home. We had a crazy busy couple days before his birthday, but thankfully "Auntie Serena" was here to help save the day.

We brought some timbits to Hudson's class, and after school Hudson has piano lessons. Then we went and met Dad and Cody at Montana's for Dinner. We picked there so Hudson would have to wear the Moose at and get sung too. It was pretty great, as he was so so embarrassed and sunk under the table haha.

After, we came home and did presents and cake. Little Fletcher beat us all to the cake and managed to mangle it before we could sing and dig in ourselves.

Now fast forward to this past weekend ( March 11)our boy had his special baptism. Sadly, with Grandma Jan and Gump on their mission, Grandpa Pete feeling ill and other obligations for my siblings, not too many family members were able to come.
Grandma and Grandpa Leishman were here on their way home from Palm Springs as well as Cody and Cassidy. We were SO thankful for Auntie Jessica and Jeff and their family, as well as Uncle Clint and Auntie Cherie for coming and making the day so extra special. Many ward members and friends also attended, Doug and Wren Ord, The Anderson's,The Siakuluk's, Jana Blumel and Leanne Smetanuik, as well as the Sefciks were all there as well.

On Friday Hudson decided he wanted to invite his special Grade 2 teacher, Mlle Grier, giving her very little notice. We were elated that she could in fact come, and it sure brought a special spirit to the day. She will never know what her attendance there meant to me. I loved seeing my boy so so happy and peaceful and calm. He beamed when he saw his teacher.

When we arrived at the church Bro. Siakuluk notified us that the program was misprinted and that it said that Shane was being baptized haha. I thought it was funny.

Hudson asked Cody to speak, and he gave a wonderful talk on baptism. Another little girl Claire Straga was also being baptised. Her Mom gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.
We asked the Prince family to do a musical number, and they played one of my favorite songs. When I am Baptized.Little Hayden started out with a violin solo, then Hannah and Brendan sang both verses. It was really special. They were AMAZING.

I think when I think back about this special day, was just how calm and happy Hudson was. He was so calm, which is a bit rare for Hudson, especially when all of the attention is on him. He looked so so so so cute in his new "lawyer suit". He did not act shy, or embarrassed but just angellic. He got baptized y his Daddy and all went great. After, he was given a wonderful blessing and received the Holy Ghost. We loved that Shane felt impressed to say that Hudson was "entertaining"  and that he has a very special missionary spirit. It said something neat about Hudson serving a mission to people who had never heard of Jesus Christ before. I felt so touched about that, imagining this sweet blessing of mine, going out and blessing the lives of others.

After we had a "feast" at our house. Princes and Heaths and Cody and Cass came over and we had a great time. The older cousins are so patient and loving to our kids. There were tons of candy and treats and the kids basically had a freeforall. Fletcher particularly was in Heaven and was rarely seen without a donut or candy in his sticky little hands.

I am so thankful for my membership in our church. I am so thankful that we have chosen to teach our babies about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the principal of Baptism. My most special life experiences and the greatest gifts in my life are directly related to my activity and membership in the Church and I count myself so lucky that I have a testimony and that I feel confident and comfortable with my beliefs. They have brought me so much joy, and I hope that they will bring my children the same joy they have brought me.

Christmas 2016

I have had so much anxiety over not  keeping up my blog that I just decided I need to start again now.

Today is Christmas Day. It has been a wonderful fun day.
Christmas time has always been a very special time for our family. We started out the month with Lego advent calendars and a return visit from our elf Charlie. It was so cute watching Fletcher get excited to see the rlf every morning, even though he can't even say Charlies name:)

Last year when we moved we didn't bring our Christmas tree with us, so we got  a new beautiful new Christmas tree. It was so fun decorating it. For every ornament that we put up, Fletcher busily was taking others down.

It has been so adorable picking up the boys from School and Having  them be so excited for their Christmas concerts. School went right until the 23rd this year, so just this past week we had both Cooper and Hudson's concerts. Due to Fletcher being 2, we only went to Cooper's concert, but Shane got some pretty adorable video of Hudson's fiere singing at his concert.

This past week was pretty busy. For family home evening we went to the Leduc County Lights festival. The lights are so impressive! The weather was perfect, and it totally put me in the holiday spirit.

Thursday night was our little angels birthday, so we went out to the cemetery and sang her Happy Birthday. We went out to Carls Jr, then went and picked up 6 balloons so send to our girl. I laughed and laughed when I noticed the boys bought a "get well" balloon haha. After our visit, we headed down CandyCane Lane. We were almost not going to go, but I am so glad that we continued our tradition. We had so much fun. Cooper rolled down the window and was yelling Merry Christmas to all of the people walking!! Fletcher was completely mesmerized. It was such a good night.

Friday I was busy getting teacher gifts and primary teacher gifts all gathered when  needed to grab a couple extra gift bags. Fletcher and I ran to dollarama, where I ended up getting barfed on in the line :(
We had planned on going to the live nativity in Spruce Grove(my favorite) but figured we had better not! We stayed home and played games instead.

Saturday morning we were planning on going to see Santa at the Sherwood Park Mall, and then going to a matinee. We managed to go to SING (Fletcher actually made it through the whole movie!!) then Hudson started to not feel so hot. We opted to skip Santa, and Hudson ended up throwing up on the way home. We were so sad because we were supposed to have Joel and Amy and their kids over. This is the second year we were sick over Christmas. Not cool.

We gave the boys their new jammies, sang some carols and sent the boys off to bed.

Shane and I then commenced wrapping all of  the gifts while watching "It's a Wonderful Life".
Hudson is transitioning meds right now and had a really tough time sleeping. There was actually not a lot of sleep that happened. It was a night full of musical beds.

I managed to get a quick shot of Santa in the middle of the night, so the boys were pretty pumped about that.

This morning did not disappoint. They boys loved their gifts, and the room was full of screams and high fives! It was so adorable. I am so thankful for my babies and getting to experience these experiences with them.

Being that Christmas fell on a Sunday, we had church this morning. We got ready and the boys were SO excited to see Cole and Lincoln. Fletcher was a serous nightmare. We hung in the foyer, while he whine-cried "home" for an hour. What I caught of the meeting, was wonderful and once again made me so thankful for My Saviour, and his birth, and sacrifice for e and my family.

After Church, Shane got busy. He researched and prepped, and cooked a wonderful Turkey Christmas Dinner. No one really ate much, but the turkey was cooked perfectly.

The rest of the day was spent playing with toys and playing games with Dad. Christmas really is such a special time.The rest of the day was spent playing with toys and playing games with Dad. Christmas really is such a special time. At about 9 o'clock, we had one last bout of excitement.. The doorbell rang. We were not expecting anyone, but to our surprise we had some Christmas Carolers. There were 4 Filipinos dressed red with guitars and tambourines. They sang screamed Feliz Navidad while me and Shane did our best not to laugh. It was the sweetest thing, and I will never ever forget the "lead singers" low grunty voice or hs massive smile.
I am so thankful for this special time and the sweet memories we were able to make this Christmas season,We are truly blessed

Our October

I know I will appreciate the efforts of this blog one day. I am pretty obsessed with my family, so one day I will be glad I tool the time to document our activities.

At the end of October our Sweet Coopy Mc Coopterton turned 4. Can I jut say that there are few things in this world as wonderful as 4 year old boys. I love this age so much! They are still little and love their Mamas, but they can do a lot by themselves.

In the past sadly Cooper's birthday has been a bit overlooked. Cassidy was staying here with us, so we both did our best to make Cooper feel very special for his big day.
Cassidy was a super hero with her balloon pumping skills. We decorated the main floor featuring a balloon waterfall:)
Cooper of course, was so thrilled and was excited to let everyone know it was his big day. If you asked him how old he was you would never get the right age(were still working on that) but he was darling, and sweet and most importantly he felt important.
Coopers party was not for a couple days, which was hard for him to understand, so we did our best to let him do whatever he wanted to make up for it.
We took Cooper to dollarama, and then to an indoor playground. He was thankful and happy. He really is such an amazing little boy. Cliche as it is, I dont know what I would do without him. He helps balance Hudson and is just so dang sweet. Lots of hugs and kisses, snuggles and I love yous!

On the 25th, we had Coopers little pals over for the cutest little boy birthday party ever.
I invited the kids to wear their costumes so they all arrived dressed so cute. When the first kids arrived they had a little dance party with some balloons, and kept me and Cass laughing.

Keeping a bunch of 4 year olds busy proved to be quite the task. We played hot potato, pin the tail on the donkey, opened gifts, ate cupcakes, and then thankfully the kids went out to the trampoline and played in the yard on the hill.

One of the kids asked if they could play balloon stomp, so it was great. The kids took care of helping us pop all of the balloons for clean up.

I think the party was a success, and Cooper loved being the star.

This little sweetheart has been the biggest blessing to our family and we love him so very much! Thank you for being such a wonderful son!!!

Family Pics 2015

Once again, our favorite photographer captured some amazing treasures for this Mama!!!

Three Boys

If someone had told me that I was going to absolutely LOVE having three boys, I really don't think I would have believed them. I have always loved little girls, and imagined my life at least having one.

The last few days I have been filled with precious moments that have been so amazing. I LOVE having 3 boys. I can now say, I would have never changed a thing. Being a mama to little boys is so special. The relationships of these 3 sweet brothers truly blows my mind. I am obsessed.

Hudson has now completed his first month of school. So far so good. He is doing well with his french words, and iit is providing him with a bit of a much needed challenge. Since we have used the destiny game as a reading reward this summer, Hudson has learned to read so well. He reads without stopping to sound out any words. I really is amazing. He is reading grade 3 and 4 books with no problems.I have seen such a huge improvement over the last few weeks. A couple weeks ago Hudson had to give the talk in Primary. He did so well. He stood up, and read the whole talk smoothly and without any help. What a huge difference a couple years can make!!
Hudson has made some nice pals,and enjoys his classmates. One day when I was dropping Hudson off, a little girl in his class said "Hi, Farting Hudson!" I knew immediately he was showing people his true self! We had a good chuckle about that! He was so embarrassed.

Hudson has become obsessed with Pokemon cards. The kids all trade them and each day he comes home with new cards and stories of how either he, or someone else was swindled getting the best EX cards.

Hudson showing Cooper he "Poko table")

Driving Huds to school has not been too bad at all. I love picking him up and hearing all of his stories. I take a country road to the school, and during the fall the drive has been so so pretty. I also get to drive by our house and snoop on progress which I love. It has been so exciting watching everything go up. Just this week they added all of the siding. Yesterday we were able to take the boys and sneak in to the house and show them their rooms. They were pretty excited. (No one can be more excited then me though-hehe)
The school is really nice and I can say I feel great about sending my kids there:)

I have loved having some extra time with my Cooper during the day. He follows me around and has such a nice calm temperament.  He loves to play with toys and especially Playdough. If I mae Cooper playdough, he will literally sit and play with it ALL DAY. He is so easy and wonderful. Etsy has slowed down and I have been able to do more around the house chores to try and get this place all ready to sell!

Handsome boys and his favorite PLAYDOUGH!!

We have had so many beautiful fall days. We have been trying to soak up as many park visits, walks, and backyard playing as possible. Sadly it is starting to feel super chilly, and I am confident there are not too many more warm days left.

The boys started in Sportball a couple weeks ago. I have Cooper going during the day on Thursdays, then Hudson goes at night. So far the boys have loved it. The coaches are great, and the boys learn skills each week for a different sport. Cooper and Hudson both really liked volleyball, and Hudson loved Basketball as well. After his class he wanted to come home and practice and "burn off some more steam." I do not want to overschedule my kids, so this has been a really nice fit for us both, They love it, and I love seeing them have so much fun. I would love to get Hudson playing an instrument next year when we are all settled in Beaumont. I am praying that Fletcher will be my cello player.

Last week, we were able to go and say goodbye to Elder Jacob Heath. He had a wonderful farewell talk and is now off to Louisiana for his mission. Last month we were able to attend the temple with Jacob and his awesome parents.  We really love Jacob so much and are so proud of him. There is not a nicer boy in the world!We will miss him, but con't wait for all of the neat experiences he will have over the next 2 years!

This weekend, we had general conference. As usual it has been wonderful and uplifting. I love the talks and listening to the encouraging spirit filled words of the Prophet ad Apostles. I hope and pray that my 3 sweet boys will be blessed with testimonies, and strength to follow the words that are spoken,as I know that they will bring them so much joy and happiness.

This last month, I have been doing a fitness challenge. It has been brutal, but I am trying to shed some of my extra Fletcher weight. Holy, is the struggle ever real. The challenge is 3 months, so I am hoping to stay the course and get a bit healthier!

Little Fletchy Fox is just a walking machine. He has really found his legs and it is so stinking cute watching him navigate around. He has been such a little ham lately. He is so funny,loves to laugh and play with his brothers. What a happy boy he is!

Fletcher loves to throw his food off of his highchair, then he laughs and laughs.
A new favorite passion of his is also to take all of the wet wipes out of the case and throw them all over. He is such a stinker!

End of Summer

I can't believe another summer has come and gone.
I am in denial about it really.
Hudson started GRADE ONE this week.The whole week prior I felt so blue about it. Hudson has become a best friend to me. He is a helper, he is funny, and I generally really enjoy being around him. I feel like I am losing a limb sending him to school all day. Cooper is also so missing his big brother. He asks me all day to go and pick Hudson up, or tells me we have to go find him because he is sad. I am looking forward to spending more one on one time with Cooper, but we both really miss our Huds!

Oh I just love this boy!

Hudson has started school in Beaumont in French Immersion. His teacher seems really sweet, but I know it is difficult for my boy as all of the other kids went to school last year together. They know some french, and they know each other. So far Hudson has done really well and I am so proud of him. I am loving the feeling of Beaumont so far and driving has not been nearly as annoying as I though it might be, but it helps that I get to snoop on my house when I go. (they are working on the roof and windows)

All ready for his first day of Grade one!

The school has a great park, and huge fields, so I have been able to take Cooper and Fletcher for walks and to the Park before Hudson's day is finished.
This week we celebrated my 34th birthday. I am so old. Yuck!
It was mostly a regular day, but we had cake for dessert and each of the kids had to have a chance to blow out my candles.

Someone LOVES cake!

The last couple weeks we had the boys in swimming lessons. They did really well, and had fun. Cooper was a bit annoying with wanting me right beside him for the duration of his lessons, but overall both Shane and I feel more comfortable with them in the water. We will do more lessons when we move.


We also went out and had our annual family photos done. My kids, mostly Cooper, were in fine form not looking at the photographer, and were busy picking and throwing rocks, sticks and anything else they could get their hands on.I love getting our pictures back though. It is always worth the fuss to have those treasures.

Fletcher is getting more confident walking. He has a waddle walk and it is so so so cute. I have been trying to get him to wear shoes and socks, but he just hates them. He quickly reverts back to crawling with them on-ha! He is definitely a summer baby!

I have been working like a dog trying to de clutter our garage and house and start getting organized. I imagine we will soon have to list our duplex so I am trying to be prepared. It has been awesome getting rid of so much excess! Love de junking!