Sundee's Birthday.

This was her in 2008.

Always the entertainer, so funny.

You can see her face change in the middle of this video when she really gets into performance mode.

and now….

Standing tall at 5' 2 1/2"  and an undisclosed number of pounds.

With a heart full of love and compassion.

A sense of humour like no other.

The sass and attitude that keeps her going.

Her love of selfies and barbies.

Her sense of fashion.

She's big, yet she still loves to snuggle.

She's still my "sticker",  never far from my side.

Always willing to help and do things without being told.

Loves her friends an family deeply.

An awesome sister and daughter.

We are so proud to be her parents.

Happy 11th birthday Sundee.

The Best Christmas EVER!!!!

And I'm not kidding.

You wouldn't believe how many times I heard that today.  From all 4 of the kids.

The thing is this Christmas was so simple.  We spent a minimal amount of money on presents.  We didn't have a big dinner. Or do huge amounts of baking and decorating.  Just simple

We celebrated early too, which was kinda fun.

Our morning went as usual.  Kids up early, back to bed, back up, back to bed and finally it had to happen - I had to get out of bed.  Thing is I was up at 5:30 and did eventually fall back asleep for a brief second.  Ok I might have been a little excited about one of the presents the kids were getting….

Yep everyone was jolly and happy,  thankful and grateful.

Kamo's first present was a set of  cars and quite seriously he didn't need anything else after that.

And then for the piece de resistance.

(Which funnily enough after being up awake about it I almost forgot about it in the big hype of opening presents.)

I made the kids a little slideshow and showed them these.

Yep, a puppy.  They all finally got their wish.

It all happened in such an interesting way this week and here we are.

I still haven't quite got my head around this but wow were they excited.  So fun.

These are pictures of the litter and the bottom one is the mom and pups.

We will have pick 2 or 3.

They are Louisiana Catahoula with 1/4 Mastiff.

Born yesterday.  

After the great excitement we enjoyed some delicious cinnamon buns, eggs benedict, and fruit

We then headed out into the beautiful sunshine and laced up and went skating.

It was so fun.  Such a warm day.  Skating in our pj's.  Does it get much better than that?

Then the rest of our day was full more food- basically non stop until bedtime- a quick nap for me, hockey, Sorry, some magic tricks by Ret, hot tubbing, more playing and all falling exhausted into bed.

I'm exhausted too.  Think it's time for bed.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Have a blessed holiday with all of you loved ones.

Cookies and Traditions

We love Christmas!!  and our kids love traditions.

Every year we make Sugar Cookies, it wouldn't be the same without them.

With many helping hands it made for heaps of fun and a huge floury mess!

And then we had Willow's friend as well who helped with cookies and took all these marvellous photos.

Looking forward to many more Christmas traditions to come.

Lesotho Independence Day

October 4th is Lesotho Independence Day.

It was on this day in 1966 when the Kingdom of Lesotho gained their independence from Great Britian.

In Lesotho they celebrate by dressing up in their district colours and wearing their traditional Lesotho blankets.  They sing songs and perform dances.

We celebrated with a Braai - South African name for Barbecue.

Spicy sausages, chakalaka, Papa, grilled corn and a fresh salad.

Yum.

There was Lesotho music playing in the background, thanks to youtube.  No dancing.  

Ret didn't stop smiling throughout the whole meal.

365 days

Yep.  One entire year since we left behind us Beautiful British Columbia, our wonderful friends, the trees and lakes and became Albertans.

We packed up our 2 vehicles, and early in the morning took the first ferry and crossed to the mainland.  Drove through the mountains and arrived in Calgary late at night with this awesome huge moon shining down on us.  And I mean huge, thinking back on it it's almost like I imagined it or was in some Dr.Seuss movie or something. Did I mention how incredibly HUGE it was.

And we arrived with our wonderful Aunt, Uncle and cousin having gotten our new homestead ready for us.

This was our home for 2 weeks.  We had some warm weather, some cold.  We cooked outside. I made the best chili I've ever had.  We got to fly kites, play basketball, watch Tractor Tom….  so so fun.

And then at last we got to move to our new house.  So lovingly picked out for us by Ter

We love it.  It's home.  So different from the last place but home.

We got rid of the Eiffel Tower and redecorated the dining room.  Tery made us this awesome table and bench.

I just finished redoing Sundee's room.

It's been an action filled year with everyone making new friends, meeting the neighbours, Tery's business has now changed locations and he's close to home!!!  We endured the winter and found that our boys really love the snow.

And a great bonus is that we've been able to see so much family!

It's strange to think back and it feels like a long time and a short time.  To think of how much has happened in the last 365 days.

Kamo's Happy Birthday!!

5 years old!  Time goes by so fast.  Especially when you start at 3 1/2.  He's grown so much in a year and a half.  Physically, and in every other way.

We bought him a new bike today and he took off.  Through every puddle, over every bump and into every fixed object on purpose.  We love Kamo, Everyone loves Kamo.  He exudes love. You stay too close to him and you crave a hug.

He's so full of love.

and crazy

and fun

and joy

he loves his family

and cake.

All boy.  He loves trucks and trains, noises - oh so many noises and the louder the better, puddles and dirt, machines and all they do.

Joyfull, loving Kamo.

Happy Birthday.

First day of Summer 2014.

 For the longest day of the year we packed it full of a few of my favorite things.

* trees.  oh how I love trees.  the smell. their oxygen. their greenness.

* hiking.  uphill. on rugged trails. surrounded by trees.

* family.  love my kids and husband.

* picnic.  yeah.  this one didn't go as planned as we got kicked out of our spot due to it being "private property".  eating from the back of the van and making it a tailgate party wasn't so bad.

* seeing something for the first time.  Lake Louise.  I've always wanted to see it and today was the day.  First time for all the kids too!

(i must reluctantly tell you that this photo is courtesy of Tery.  His colour was so much better than mine and I could not refuse to use it.)

* seeing a bear.  We really wanted to see one today and we were leaving the park and I was saying this.  A minute later Ter spotted one and we all got to see it!  There was a lot of cheering and celebration.

(this is not a photo of the bear we saw.  I took this from a poster before we left thinking I would crop and doctor it some to make you believe we saw it.  But I am telling the truth we did see a bear I just did not get a photo of it)

 * getting a photo of all of us together.  this doesn't happen very often seeing as usually I'm taking the photos.  love this.

* Day trips. the Loewen speciality.  

Mother's Day

I am so lucky.

For my 4 wonderful kids that I have been blessed with.

Without them I would not be able to celebrate this day.

I am grateful they are my children.  

God has handpicked them to be in our family and I would have it no other way.

Joyfull and Loving   

Generous and Loving

Strong and Loving

Full of Joy and Love

Do you see a pattern here.  My kids are full of love.  They show this every day.

In how they treat each other, me, their friends and family.  

I was blessed this morning with breakfast in bed, then a wonderful lunch out. And a day filled with my kids loving on me.  

A highlight of today.  We got a new couch this week and we all were sitting on it at the same time.  My kids love to be around us and here we are celebrating this together- comfortably. 

This is where I was taken for Lunch.  It was so awesome.  My cheeks still hurt from that very thick Vanilla Shake.

And I am so thankful for my moms who have taught me how to be a good mom.

My mother is strong and kind. Loving and fun.

My mother-in-law has accepted me as a daughter and taught me to be generous and selfless.

Thank you to my children for helping to shape who I am and who continue to stretch and shape me into a better person.

Today is not about me but about who I am because of the gift of my kids.