My Little Sunshine


This little girl is the light of my life. I can’t believe how much fun she is, and how much she is growing. Sometimes Sassy, but always my little snuggle bug.

Lola loves singing, and will make up little songs while playing Barbies (much like her Mama used to do). She also LOVES the “Wonder Pets” song, and enthusiastically sings “What’s going to work? Teamwork!”

If she’s unhappy, she’ll say “FINE!!” but then promptly place herself in timeout.

Noah’s Dream Come True!! Cake Pop Making with Nana

It’s true what they say about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach. Especially my little man Noah, he is in heaven when he gets to bake anything! This past week he was delighted to have his Nana here on a visit and happy to make brownie cake pops with him. He’s been talking about it ever since. (BTW, Noah totally fell in love with his Nana and told her so frequently. They also read alot of books together, and he told her “I want to read with you…because I LOVE you!”)

What a treat for us to have Nate’s parents come and stay with us for 10 days. We love being with them, and all of the fun we have together. It never matters what we do, even just hanging out is a blast because we enjoy each other so much. During their visit I hardly took a picture, I was just involved in the moment which is sometimes better than snapping away. I’m grateful to have a few shots though of their little baking date.

We managed to see the new “Oz The Great and Powerful” movie with them and Dylan. We went to dinner at the Keg, shopped, laughed, played games, went to the Lego exhibit in Sidney, ate, soaked in the hot tub, and a few of us even had a bought of the flu together (hope you guys feel better soon!). Thanks so much for the fun visit Mom and Dad – we love it when you’re with us!!





Heaven On A Plate

While shopping today with my Mother-in-Law in downtown we were needing a little sugar fix. We ran into an unassuming cafe/bakery and saw this beautiful creature in the glass case. Lemon Cake with Italian Butter Icing – HEAVEN on a plate. We were dying! I’m not kidding, best cake I’ve ever had.

We are going to stash this place away as a “MUST SEE” when we’re together and when the Earls come to visit, and when Dad gets back later this week, and when I am bored…hahaha in other words I’ll be back.

A Smooch For My Daddy

Sharing one of my favourite pictures today. Not as much for the quality of the photo, or how we look, but how it makes me feel when I see it. This is a picture of my Dad and I saying goodbye before I drove back home with the kids (at this time in our lives Nathan was going to Dental school in Saskatoon, SK and so our family was 6 hours away in Calgary). I gave him a big smooch and made him laugh because he was getting emotional (hint* I was too).

My Dad has always been a “tough guy” but there’s something you should know, he’s pure mush when it comes to his kids! I know that he loves me, he tears up whenever he has to say goodbye to me. I love my Dad.

Lola Plays Wedding

There are a few unforgettable moments in life, like when you see your baby girl in a veil for the first time…Melt my heart delicious. She’s too cute for words. Thankfully we have a few years before she wears one for real!

I hope she always knows how dear she is to us, our family wouldn’t be complete without our Lola Olivia.

My Kids Mean The World To Me

I am really one lucky Mom! I have the most darling kids in the world. Each day I am fortunate enough to be with them as they grow and learn together. I love the added closeness that homeschooling has brought for us this year, I love seeing my boys who literally HATED reading just months ago now devouring novels like they are going out of style. In fact, Joshua is reading 3 or 4 right now at the same time, he says “Mom, I sometimes can’t hear anything else when I’m reading. It’s like I’m in the book having an adventure and that’s the real world!” Music to my ears.

FUN SHARE:

My friend Megan from Brassy Apple put out a call for pictures to her viewers and friends – we sent in a few to be included in her Refashion Your Life series. Check out the new video celebrating the Beauty of Life here>>

To participate in the Refashion Your Life challenges and inspiration rush on over here too>>

Template for our day

For awhile now I’ve been wanting to implement something to create a Fullness of Life in our day, something for the whole family to do. It had to be simple, and it had to be easy to start our day with. I came up with this Template for our day. Each morning myself and the children sit down and discuss something we can do in each category, I’m finding that as we do this our lives are becoming more balanced and it’s easy to sit around and talk about what we did that day because we’re always seeking for things to better our hearts, home, friendships and spirit.

Here’s the Template: (* we try to do at LEAST one under each category, these are voluntary choices in addition to regular chores and family scripture study)

Work -

Learning -

Play -

Faith/Devotion -

Service -

I’m noticing a difference in how I feel about my days. Instead of the old standard “To Do” list (which totally has it’s place). I love that this gives me diversity and helps me think about how I can grow, value myself, serve others, and worship God on a daily basis. I’m excited to keep this going and see how it affects our family over the long term.
- Daria

I made a Valentine’s Day Photo Booth for the Youth Dance

This little photo booth brought so many smiles on Friday night, when I had the pleasure of creating this and snapping fun pictures of the teenagers at their Valentine Dance. I loved how surprised they were that I was there to capture them on film, and the bonus was that I used my Instax Mini “polaroid type” Camera so they got their photo to take home with them after the dance.

At first a few of the teens were unsure whether it would be social suicide to cooperate, but the moment they spied the props that I had made they ran like wild beasts to get in line. I was laughing the whole time, seeing the macho boys decline a photo but then when they saw there were moustaches on a stick it was game on! The props were so fun to make and everyone including the chaperones got in on the merriment. (PS I LOVE my Silhouette Cameo, it’s a rock star!). I felt really honored to be able to do this fun project for the youth, I adore them. I shared a tutorial of how I did this on Boutique Cafe too.