Blessings and boys...

I have been so so so....lucky to be blessed with such amazing kids. They sure put me through the ringer as infants/older babies...but it was so worth it. 
Now A is older, loves to learn, loves to play with me, and has such a sweet little spirit. He loves talking about thing of great significance, like what happens to us when we die and how he can better follow Jesus. He is such a special kid. 
He always helps out around the house, and loves to play with his little brother. Most days, when roo says something funny or cute or silly, A and I look at each other and smile, and he says, "roo is just so cute, isn't he mommy?"...it's so precious. 
I'm loving this time at home with him, and how much time we get to spend together playing Nintendo, making crafts, baking...he just wants to be doing whatever I'm doing, and I love it...and I love that I love it!! 
Roo is ssuuuuupppppeeerrr sweet. He is the greatest little napper...and before he lays down we always read books, then he asks me to tell him a story, then sing the exact same song every day. The stories I tell him are always ones that have happy endings, where the little fish finds his mommy, or the toy gets fixed, or the lonely race car finds friends...and he always LOVES them...which is great, because I don't have much of an imagination when it comes to story-telling, ha ha. 
He loves to cuddle with me and his daddy, and still loves to give us kisses with his cute little fishy-lips. There is nothing more he would rather be doing than playing with me and A, he just adores A...laughs at all of his silly jokes, follows him around, steals his toys..ha ha...he really does love him. Plus, he is just SO cute, like seriously adorable....love him.
I feel so blessed that I have been able to have this time to spend with just the two of them without another little baby sleep-depriving me and sucking my brain cells (even though I do LOVE babies, they are so worth the mind-drain, ha ha). Sometimes you just have to count your blessings...and today I feel so blessed. 
I am also SUPER excited that my hubby starts his new job in 1 week!! We'll finally have a "real" job....well real in the way that most jobs are, ya know, you get paid regularly, get holidays, benefits etc...all that awesome-ness. You'll all just have to remind me how lucky we are to have landed this job when I'm bummed out everyday that my hubby is gone!!
Speaking of blessings...I am so very blessed to have had these last 6 years with my hubby being pretty much job-less(most of which while he was going to school, which still gave me a lot of time with him). It's been so fun to be able to hang out with him so much...we get to spend a LOT of time together, play games and watch movies all night long...he helps out a LOT around the house...and he may or may not let me sleep in every morning that he is home (don't hate me sleep-deprived friends!). 
Another new blessing this past week has been the little casual day-home I started....I think it will be super fun! I'm really excited to get more into it...and even if I don't get a ton of kids doing it...it'll be better for my kids to have actual activities planned throughout the day, and fun crafts and games to do...it's been really great for us. 


If you want to read some awesome mom-posts:
for boys-http://studerteam.blogspot.ca/2011/11/25-rules-for-mothers-of-sons.html
for girls-http://dressupanddragons.blogspot.ca/2012/03/daughters.html and http://diapersdaisies.blogspot.ca/2012/01/rules-for-mothers-of-daughters.html

And if your looking for an awesome activity to help your kids enjoy general conference weekend next week: http://www.therhouse.com/general-conference-ideas-for-kids/


Here's some funny roo-ism's to end with:
roo: "I had a giant poo! It wasn't an airplane one, but a banana one."
"will you read me a story that's not in a book, but is in your brains?"

Monday...

I love listening to the kiddos play...especially when it's A and his little girl-cousins...have I mentioned that he only has girl cousins? With another little girl on the way? Only 4 more weeks! Eeek! I can't wait...I love babies:)
This is some of A's convo with his fave little cousin..."I live in Africa America"..."well I live in south America"...."I have a really huge spaceship to fly all over"..."I have a spaceship with pink and purple sparkles"....later on..."want me to shoot your eye?"..."no thanks, I already shot my own eye"
Lol...I really should record them..they are so funny together. :) <3

GMAT shplat!!

Well...we sure had a crazy week last week!! 
I, for one, am glad it's over...and so is my hubby...probably even more GLAD than I am. 
No more studying!! For a while at least....he most likely will go back to school in a few years, and may decide to finish his CFA certification(finance shtuff) before that, we'll see...but either way he'll be done with studying for a while!!
He did really well on the GMAT(a test to get into business school, MBA), which is a huge relief, because that sucka costs $250 every time you write it...which adds up. 
We were planning on him having to write it a few times to get a good enough score, but he did well enough the first time. 
He got above the minimum required score for all of the 6-8 universities we had planned on applying too...so I think we're good. 
Maybe one day he'll decide to increase his score, but for now, we feel good about it. The scores are good for up to 5 years too, so we don't have to go to school right away, we could wait a little while still, which is awesome too. 
We're finally done all the crazy interview-iness...and I'll post more about that later...but we're definitely excited for how well everything has been turning out:) (including starting a casual day-home this week, all the info's on my FB page if you're interested)
If everything goes as planned, we will even get to stay in Lethbridge for a while! Yay!
I had really wanted to move for a while now, but I realized that I would really miss my friends, being close to family, all the great subsidies living here offers, our awesome-sauce house PLUS we get to stay on the adoption list if we live in AB...so we're happy about that too:)
I'm really excited to see what's in store for us next...I may have spent the entire last week looking at awesome houses close around here....just maybe...don't you love mls.ca? I DO!!

our busy life:)

We have been up to SO much lately...which is why I haven't been posting nearly enough. 

It started with my hubby's mom visiting, which is always busy, because we want to spend every waking moment with her because she is just that awesome!!

We had a lot of fun cooking, cleaning, eating and talking all hours of the night. She always has such great ideas about the gospel, families, relationships, rearing children etc...it was great to talk about everything. Our talks have given me a renewed desire to look into homeschooling again, as she has done all forms of schooling with her kids, and really loved the time she was able to spend with her kids while she home-schooled them for those few years.

My hubby has been particularly busy as of late. I had gotten a job offer, but wasn't sure if I should take it or not, as he had been called for a ton of interviews, and they had all been going really well! I ended up turning it down (more on that later) because his prospects were looking so good. 

He went to a ton of interviews the last few weeks, and has been working odd jobs in the mean time, and studying for a super hard test called the GMAT, that he had previously set up, in order to try and get into Business school (MBA). 

Today, in fact, he is writing that super hard test...and tomorrow he has a 2nd interview for a job that he really wants. I am SO glad that we have the knowledge that the gospel brings into our lives, my father was able to give my hubby a really great blessing before he left, and he was blessed with peace and safety. 

I was particularly glad for the safety part, as we are up north visiting family, and the weather is horrendous here. He called when he made it to the testing center, and said that the roads were really awful, but he made it. One semi-truck driving next to him completely spun out and was headed towards on-coming traffic, but was miraculously stopped by the wire fence down the meridian, which apparently looked as if it were going to snap...it was really a miracle that he made it there safely.

I've been getting ahead of myself and already looking at mls.ca at some awesome houses!! ha ha

When I got offered my job, I was seriously thinking about taking it, even if my hubby works too. After some thought, it didn't make sense to work out of the home, when most of what my hourly wage was, would be going towards babysitting...it just didn't seem worth it. So, instead, I decided I would start babysitting from home. 

I'm SUPER excited about this, and have been researching really neat toys and Montessori-style learning, which is what I'm going to to base it on. 

I've been looking into some great activities, and setting up a whole room in which I'll have all of the toys/activities/learning games set out. 

Even if I don't end up babysitting a ton, I will still be really glad that I've done all of this planning and learning, because I think it'll be a great little room to hang out in with the kids all day. 

Once it's finished, I'll have to do a whole new post about it...it's working out really well in my mind, so hopefully it turns out like that in real life too!!

I'm excited for what this next week will bring, and I'll update you all when we find out about the job:)

Roo turned three...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now...since roo's birthday was a few weeks ago. 

His grandma was able to come and visit for his birthday, which was really neat, since how she spends most of her time in California. We planned it just right, so that all of us could go meet her at the airport. we stayed at a really great hotel that had some awesome water-slides.

We spent most of the evening and all morning at the pool,. which both roo and A loved. There was a little kiddy pool that roo and I spent all of our time in, with a tiny little slide. He got really brave and started trying to swim on his own and everything. He'd jump under the water and glide to me with his eyes open, and tell me that his eyes were waterproof so they'd be okay, he he, it was pretty cute:)

We went out for a great lunch with some more of my hubby's fam-jam...which was super nice that they a;; drove a ways to meet us!

We spent the afternoon at a Fun Center that I thought would be much funner than it was....roo wasn't such a fan, so we didn't stay there long. 

I suppose I should post some highlights of our last year with little roo:

-he speaks very celarly and very well, in fact probably too much (I wonder where he would have ever gotten that from?!)

-he's such a little smartie pants...if I give him a choice, like: would you like to get that toy taken away from you or would you like to give it back that little boy you took it from? He usually says, how about I keep the toy and don't give it back, that's my final option!! ha ha...he's a goof.

-He hasn't gained a ton of weight or height this year, he's still a pretty little guy, but he keeps up well with his burly older brother

-He loves sharing a room with his brother, and almost every night I hear them talking and giggling...I love how well they get along, if only it would last forever!

-He gets excited about absolutely everything,. especially food...he comes by that honestly.  When we asl him his favorite color, he says: "blue, green, purple, pink and yellow!!! ALL of them!!" :)

-Roo is such an obedient little boy. He is perfect for his teachers at church, and always really good for me at home too. In fact, he's been so good that I keep waiting for the "terrible two's" to kick in, but I just don't think they are going too! 

-My favorite thing about little roo is how much he  LOVES to cuddle...I love his hugs and kisses, and love that he still wants to snuggle with mommy and daddy...he is such a softie. 

Well little  ROO we sure love you!! I am so excited to see how much you will learn and grow this next year:)