Ode to Abby

My sweet Abby is 6 months old. She is probably 20lbs and full of happiness. She is soo sweet and happy. She rolls all over the living room and goes crazy in her bouncer. Her eyes light up when shes see me or her daddy and she giggles so much when alice plays with her. Abby my second lil angel. I love being a mommy to such wonderful lil girls.

Wow its February already. Things are good the girls growing and becoming more amazing each day. I slacked this week and didn't take pics on Feb 2 and Feb 6 mostly because i forgot and was super busy. But i still carry on with my project.
Feb1 - abby eating rice yum yum lol
Feb 3 - Nico came to visit
Feb 4- Alices beautiful eyelashes
Feb 5 - Alice after a hard day of playing
Feb7 - mommies and babies. me alice, michelle summer, carly and dom
Feb 8- me and my girls

I started working digitally with my pictures for a scrapbook soo at some point I will print them.. well off for the day.. sorry kinda blah... I will write tommorrow

Finally I can post the latest pics.. So heres a run down and also for me to remember..
Jan18 - we live vicariously thru our children.. this is alice barbie.
Jan19 - Alice is a dance fool with her dance mat.
Jan20 - The day Obama became president of USA
Jan21 - My sweet abigails photoshoot for fun
Jan22 - My attempt at Callis Chicken Enciladas.. soooo good
Jan 23 - I spent the evening scrapbooking at home
Jan24 - Daddys girl
Jan25 - Uncles girl
Jan26 - Abby now likes to only lay on her stomach in the tub
Jan27 - This morning alice was running around in halloween pjs, housecoat, winterboots and a bag of plastic veggies.
Jan28 - crazy and oveexposed lol
Jan29 - abbys chubbiness i love it
Jan30 - its late i just survived a scary ride home from calgary.
Jan31 - I was at an all day scrapfest and made a mini album for xmas\

So far i am enjoying this challenge.. I realized i need to take more of abby and some ones of alice looking groomed lol.. Its a challenge to get the camera out before midnight otherwise I get pics of me in the kitchen lol.. Its nice cause i can reflect on each day. I figured out how i am going to scrapbook it.. i gave up on the becky higgins kit.. 1 its sold out, 2 its selling on Ebay for 200 bucks soo i will work on something this week and post it later.

I do find when i am taking pictures everday I am taking lots i have so many of the girls its funny and of other various things, I chose the ones for the product based on whichever pic makes me smile. If you click on the grid i belive it will show up bigger for you. I will post more as the days go by.. and I will keep you updated on the life of us.

25 random facts

I was going to post 365 today but I will wait till end of month.. but so far so good.

Heres something to entertain you.. I posted in on Facebook but i know some of you loathe it so this is for yah.

1. My middle name is Rickie.. not many people know that.
2. I had my license suspended for a month when I was 19 -- a bit to many speeding tickets
3. I have eaten raw caribou and dipped it in whale blubber -- it was wierd but when in rome.. or when in saluit...
4. I have 8 sisters and 8 brothers (that i know of) but I am a only child --- long story.......
5. I found my life twin.. you know when they say there someone out there just like you.. her name is tasha.. and she saved me from loneliness one summer.
6. I have a box of letters from friends in grade 8 in a old cooler in the basement...
7. I realllly hate doing dishes so much so that I bought my town house in Edmonton solely on the fact that it had a dishwasher..
8. I've twisted my ankle to the point where I had to go to emergency several times but have never ever broken it...
9. I've been to Amsterdamn, Germany, Berlin, France, London and Scotland, Bahamas, Mexico, MOst of West USA and Canada and lived in a town in northern Quebec where I got picked up by a skidoo to go to work and it was -30 in september.
10. I have 3 degrees Rec Admin, Sociology and Law. but nothing prepared me for motherhood lol.
11. I don't like mustard
12. I love pickles
13. I once gave someone CPR and they did not survive.
14. I love Nicholas Sparks books and cry every single time.
15. I read all the Harry Potters in a month
16. I read the entire chronicles of narnia in 3 days while my husband laid in a hospital bed
17. I miss my dad
18. I have a 10 year old placostomas fish that is probably 30 cm long and just wont die
19. I got kicked out of Art 10
20. I once cutoff a braid of a boy that had 2 braids in grade 5.
21. My first kiss was in grade 7
22. I will always help my family and friends out no matter the situation and usually give them advice whether they like it or not
23. I once lived in a 900 Square foot townhouse in Edmonton with 4 other ppl and one bathroom
24. I love to watch Little People Big World and if I was ever in Oregon again would go to their farm.
25. Someone is alive today because of me.
26. I belive in my culture, it makes sense to make and helps me through rough days and its been there with me on good days. Its the basis of who I am.

far from perfect but pretty darn fantastic anyway

Hello .. sorry i have been behind. Here are some latest pics of the girlys.. We have been busy sledding, building snowmans and alice started swimming lessons, which apparently she does not like. It must be the structure lol. So my life is not perfect and I don't pretend it to be.. its good and I love every moment. Its nice just to be happy with your everyday moments. Yeah there are days where I need a glass of wine to take the edge off lol.. or i just need a drive like yesterday boy that was a doozy.
It began with alice waking up before the rest of the world at 600am awesome, so we come down stairs and she has her milk and tree house and lala.. so far so good.. then i am dealing with my career via email with a bunch of meatballs seriously its like ppl try to make my life harder .. so i got over it abby woke up so i bring her down shes happy as pie and then i lay her on rug to changer her (usually i put a blanket or something down) but today i was like whatever what could go wrong really? So she pooped and then while i was taking her pamper off she wiggled and wiggled and smooshed yep smooshed her lovely green poop onto the nice cream carpet. How do you get mad at a 5 month old? You dont', you smile while your 2 year old is looking saying gross gross. So abby goes into jumper and i think oh wait we have a carpet cleaner so I get said carpet cleaner out and go to fill the water tank, but it was full from the last clean, full with dirty moldy SMELLY water... Greattttt. so i clean it out to the best of my ability with no bleach and then proceed to clean the carpet.. Carpet came clean but then my house smelled gross because the carpet cleaner smelled like barf because it was wasn't cleaned.. so i was fed up called wes he was like whoops.. oh well lol. and i went for a drive with the kids of course. oh and while i was getting carpet cleaner ready alice was trying to clean up poop with her socks.. greatttt lol. yeah so it was a great 1hr lol.. but isn't that the life of every mom?

My 365 project is good so far, I will upload tommorrow and maybe even post twice in one week wow wouldn't that be something. lol.. Well thanks for listening to my madness... hey life ain't perfect if it was then what would we laugh at and how would we have goals and dreams. Its the imperfections that create memories....

Project 365

So I have started my project 365... 365 days in our lives... I will take pictures of me, the girls, wes, stuff, and ppl in our lives. I will make a scrapbook album out of it somehow digitally once I figure out Adobe or find a easier program. But I still will do my regular scrapbooking of course. I wanted to buy a Becky Higgins project 365 kit but they are allll sold out and they haven't decided if they are making more so I will at least start the pics and the details..I figure if i post here once a week in addition to my regular posts it will make it easier.

Jan 8 - Alice's watching her favorite show and dancing "In the Night Garden"

Jan 9 -Alice finds Mr. Potatoe Head glasses and wears them alllll day long

Jan10 - Abby is 5 months old.. wow time flies

Jan11 -Kokum comes to visit..alice running crazy while abby soaks up some kokum time..

Jan12 - a relaxing day at home and alice crusing her bike in the kitchen.

Jan13-Abby lol.. just thought it was the funniest pic of the day

Jan14 - Abby sleeping with her favorite sleep toy.. musical seahorse.. i just love how peaceful she looks.

Jan 15 - Scrapbooking day wohoo

Jan 16 - We went to out and alice tried on these glasses and pretty much kept them on alll day and everyday since then lol

Jan17 - we finally built a snowmap thats what alice calls them.

I find while taking pics everyday i can't take just one, nope i probably end up taking about 20 per day lol.. so its nice cause I have some really good pics of the girls and us.

ps.. who reads my blog from leftbridge and stoney plain lol.. take care everyone and hope your enjoying the awesome weather

Goals 2009

So everyone has there new years resolutions/goals etc. I made some goals for myself.. If I achieve them fantastic but if not I won't be beating myself up about it.. lol. But I think if I create goals, I have to create a way to accomplish them or else I probably won't ever get them done or started nonetheless.

1. My 365 project..there are a few of these ideas floating around.. I know a friend of mine takes pics everyday of her 2 kids.. I am going to sorta do the same thing but I will take pictures of everything in my life for 365 days.. I am sure the majority will be alice and abby but I can't forget about wes, the animals and everything else that encompasses my life. I saw a perfect scrapbook kit that would help but its sold out so i found a variety of variations.. I will make one post weekly of my weekly pics and journaling and hope hope hope I stick with it for one year. I have already started and once I find a good kit I will start my layout..maybe I will do a digital ooohhhhhh

2. Take better pictures.... so I want to be a better photographer and I got a new flash for my camera and I have lots of new ideas.. so I put the word out I want to get better and ppl can pay me 50 buckeroos and I will change their life lol... or just take their pics for 1 hr lol.

3. I want to be better organized.. i bought a shelf from ikea and watch alot of homemade simple soo thats about all i got so far for this goal lol..

4. I want to be healthier.. yeah everyone has this goal.. i know.. so I enrolled in step areobics class on weds.. should be entertaining for everyone involved lol.. Oh I also enrolled alice in swimming

5. I want alice to eat more fruit.. sooo i made banana bread today and hope she eats it.. now if I can only figure out how to make everything into cookies i would be set.. spinich chocolate chip cookies anyone lol

6. I want to enjoy the relationships I have .... friendship is a two way street and sometimes some people in our lives forget that and we get left with all the work.. so my goals is to stop trying so hard for people who won't try so hard for me.. is that mean.. not really.. just honest

7. Enjoy my 30's ... so never thought I would say this.. but I look forward to growing old watching my kids grow up.. I had my time .. oh yes I did lol.. now I can enjoy attempting to raise two responsible citizens.

8. Give my career a jump start.. soo I hopefully will become a laywer soon lol.. and after maternity leave I will go back to work.. time TBA lol. So I wrote a letter to SCN stating I would love to continue and gave them my expected rate of pay.. we will see how that goes

9. hmmm I can't think of any more goals.. right now.. the first few were my main.. the rest I accomplish is just an added bonus.

a gingerbread house died today

Alice and Nico made a gingerbread house.. it was a wonderful thing, even more wonderful when they figured out you could eat the candy. But what is the purpose of a gingerbread house... we build it and let it sit and it gets hard and then we throw it away. Today i finally broke down and threw out the house. Pretty much every year we make one and put it out for display and then toss it after it gets hard lol. It if fun to make and bond while we make the house but alice doesn't really eat candy.. she did however lick a few choice pieces before she put them on the house lol. So next year i will still buy a gingerbread house make it and nibble on the candy before it gets hard and then set it out on the table and contemplate this whole thought again.

Reflection

Well another Christmas has come and gone.. I enjoyed it very much this year. Its fun now that alice gets the whole idea sorta, well she gets the presents part and she figured out who santa was. We had 5 christmases lol, we went to vermillion, the lightning gift exchange on xmas eve, xmas day we went to my moms and my bio dad and boxing day we went to wes's moms. Now our house basically looks like toys r us threw up in it but oh well once a year and alice is quite busy now playing with her toys and abbys lol.

So the new year is coming and i guess this is when we reflect on the past year and what we look forward to in the new.

My past top 10 memories of 2008
1. The birth of Abigail Patricia
2. Moving into our new house
3. Alice becoming a motor mouth and saying "hey baby"
4. My family trip to Victoria for a friends wedding.
5. My trip to banff with some great girls.
6. All the dinners with my super family , mom and sister and brothers
7. My great scrapbook nights with my friends
8. Taking alice to Calgary Zoo
9. Finally completing my articling
10. Taking alice to spray parks and lakes during the summer

What I look forward to in 2009
1. Watching abby and alice grow together
2. Becoming a real life lawyer
3. Finishing my yard
4 Enjoying everyday moments with all of you.

Hope you all have a great new years and had a great holiday.

alice is turning 2

Alice is turning 2 on December 18, 2008. My baby yep i still call her baby. She had a birthday party today in Leduc at the Rec Center. It began with crafts (kinda lol) and pizza and mostly for her cheetos and then she went swimming. The weather today was cold to say the least. We had some cancel due to weather and roads and illness but what can you do when its -30 out lol. But some great friends braved the cold to help us celebrate. She began being a bit shy and but she warmed up near the end, especially when she found out cake was involved. She loved every present. It was fun afternoon. She loved swimming with her cousin Hailey. I can't believe i am the mother of a 2yearold and a 4 month old.. if you knew me years back you would not think this lol.. Alice has her Hobbema party on the 17th yep we have 2 parties lol i am crazy, next year it is one party one shot deal lol.. but becasue her family is soo spread out it just works out better to have 2. I believe in celebrating birthdays to their fullest and they should be big deals with lots of friends, laughter and of course birthday cake. I love birthdays. And everyone person i know that has a bday around christmas tells me how much they hate it and I don't want alice to think that so she gets a huge shabang to celebrate her life. Everyone shoud feel super special at least one day out of the year.. well here is some pics from the day and i will post again after the next partay.. thanks for those that braved the cold to be with us it meant alot and for those that couldn't be there we completely understand.

Life with Alice

This is what happens when you let a 2 year old pick out her own shoes.

monkey updates

So I thought I would give an update on the two lil monkeys alice and abigail.

Abigail is going to be 4 months on the 10th. Its kinda crazy because to me she was just born and tiny and now she is getting so big and chubby. She is beginning to roll over although once shes there she doesn't know what to do lol. She tries to hold her own bottle, she loves her milk. Shes sooo calm I bring her with me to teach and to most meetings and no one even realizes she is there. She only cries really hard when we are grooming her lol cleaning her cheesy neck as she is the queen of spitting up or if she is is super hungry/tired. She wakes goes to sleep around 1030 or 9 and sometiems wakes up at 1 to eat if not then she definately wakes up at 530 to eat. but it depends how comfy she is. Yep i still sleep with her. But shes a lil sweetie and shes beginning to find her sister quite funny and probably pretty crazy. It is abby first xmas and we dont' know what to buy her any suggestions she is only 4 months off to toys r us for me lol.

Alice my lil bookworm loves to read this kid gets soo excited to read or if she gets a new book. We do the book a month club thing with growler she is now getting some disney books. She loves to dance dance dance its fun to watch as she is not exactly graceful. She loves abby and is protective of her. At a dinner someone grabbed abbys bottle and alice let them have it lol. Shes not as jealous anymore shes beginning to enjoy abby and especially now that abby laughs at her she thinks she has a bigger audience now. Alice is beginning to use sentaces small ones, "where did it go" but she pretty much will copy whatever you say sooooo we have to watch our language. The whole potty training thing she is not ready for yet maybe next month but we keep the option open for her if she ever gets the courage to try sit on the potty without a diaper. Even though i am at home I still try to take her to daycare once or twice a week since i have meetings and teach a class so she get some playtime in with her friends. She will be turning 2 in 2 weeks.. wow.. so the party planning has begun I am excited because this year she will get it and she will also get the whole idea of christmas.

Well the christmas season is upon us so we have lots to do and lots to be thankful for. It has been along time since I could genuinely look forward to christmas and this year I am pretty excited, i will make sure to keep you posted. Here is some silly pics for you to see.

Buffalo Sisters and Brothers

Well I here is another of my favorite families that I did a photoshoot for. I have known this family for years we road the bus together way back in the day and I played ball with some of these women. These are sisters and brothers (adults) and all of their kids from the Buffalos. There was i think 4 or 5 kids missing and 1 more brother. It was super cold this day but they were still pumped and the kids sat still for a long time, police officer had to come check up what the heck we doing lol. I am glad they like them I had a fun day that day.

Mommy Time

So I have been home for 2 weeks... wow this is way harder than working lol. I love it. Its so much fun to be able to spend the days with my kids.. I went shopping with both of them by myself (technically i met friends) but i did it. I still get no sleep just like I am working.. abby goes to bed late.. although tonight she was out by 930 and alice wakes up at 6 sometimes 630 if I am lucky. Good thing for coffee.
Last weekend I had a scrapbook weekend with the girls. It was super. abby is a great scrapbooker lol. It was cold due to it being in an arena but super fun. My scrapbook group meets once a month but lately we find more reasons than once a month to meet. I love being able to just relax and have an evening away, that is pretty much my only evening activity besides the odd coffee night.
Xmas is coming up super fast, I think I will put up my tree soon. This will be the first year since me and wes met that we have a fake tree. But with 2 kids and a white rug its the best option just until alice gets past the knock everything over stage lol. Plus every single year there is always a morning where we come downstairs and our tree is on the floor.
Well hopefully my next post will be more inspiring.. i have all these great ideas but then i sit down and blank blank. oh and ps I was one of the 10% that did not see the big flash of light.. and i think everyone else is crazy hehe.

I can wear jeans

So today is my last day at Sasakamoose Law office with Samson Cree Nation. My last day as an articling student. I have been here for one year. It has been a great year full of learning, laughing and growing. I work with some pretty amazing ppl that always make the day brighter. (I know they are blog stalking lol). Working in my community really makes a difference, my daughter gets to go to daycare with her cousin, I get to see my family on a regular basis. I get to help people in my community which is why I went to law school, that and to support my shopping habit. Its been quite a year. It is hard leaving behind a desk for awhile. What do i do next..
Well I get to go on mat leave, I get to relax, I get to BREATHE. I still teach classes on monday afternoon at the college until December and I still sit on 2 boards so that will keep my mind busy. And it will give Alice a chance to still go to daycare 1 or 2 times a week.
But now its time to get my mommy heart busy. Time to organize my home, do crafts with alice, watch more tree house, change more diapers, potty train, bottle wean, take mega pics of my daughters, go to playdates, go to gymboree, have coffee with great friends. Its time to slow down, my abby is already 2.5 months almost 3 and I need to be there for her and alice is going to be 2 and she needs me. The Law will always be there but this tiny age with 2 lil girls only comes around once.
In the new year will bring many changes, I will be a real live lawyer not just a 'student' anymore. My bar call ceremony will likely be in feb and then after that I will return to work either here or somewhere. The new year will bring new possibilities. But after many years of school and books I need to just take a step back and decide on where I want life to go next.

Our Halloween

So for Halloween Alice dressed up as snowwhite.. This kid had 3 costumes to chose from lol. My mom bought her an elmo but she won't put it on, we think she thinks she is wearing elmo skin. lol. I bought her a unicorn costume and she wouldn't put that on either.. So finally my husband said get her something with a dress and viola she wears it. The daycare took them trick or treating around the band office so when i picked her she had a pumpkin full. After work my cousin brought her daughter mehkwan over shes 2 weeks older than alice and they went around the block hunting for candy. They had fun. Alice for some reason didn't believe chips should go in her pumpkin so when ppl would give her chips she would scream no and throw them on the ground lol, but she welcomed chocolate of course lol. That nice alice when to sleep pretty easy.
A few days before we carved a pumpkin, a classic nothing fancy. Alice watched in awe and was pretty proud of her 'punkit' and would kiss it before bed and say hello in the morning. It was to cold to take abby out but we took pics of her in catepillar costume and she did come to work with me in her costume and her halloween pjs. I think halloween is right up there with christmas for me. Now i have to decorate for xmas, the day after halloween both my neighbours put up all their xmas lights and decorations.. i better one up them lol.

Halloween Photoshoot

So for Halloween I set up a backdrop in a spare office at my work and took kiddy pics. I charged 12 buckeroos and they got 1 8x10 and 2 4x6 and on online album. If they wanted a CD or more pics it was for an extra charge. So here is an snapshot of one of the cuties. Click on my photoalbum link for the rest. Only the first 10 are edited the rest are not.

plane rides

Life has been busy,, but when has my life not been busy lol. I went to Toronto last week for an Indigenous Bar Association conference. I took abby with me and my baby sitter Kendra, my sister. The flight there was good, abby was really good on the plane and she was quite the conversation peice at the conference. Alice went to Vermillion to the farm for a few days while I was in Toronto and Wes was working. Apparenlty she only cried for abby lol. she was very happy to see her when we got home. It was sweet.

Abby is sleeping longer at nights, last night she didn't wake up till 630 this morning.. she sleeps for about 8 hrs straight now.. hmm.. shes only 2 .5 months but she eats an increadible amount during the day to store up for night i guess and she has enough chubby on her so I don't worry. Alice's talks lot now. She will tell you what an owl says and what sheep say lol. and she calls pumpkin a 'punkit' lol. She was very interested when we carved the pumpkin last night but thought the slimy stuff was i quote 'gross' .

Its been one year since my dad passed away, its very unreal to me but real at the same time. We had a tea dance and I was so amazed at how much food was made. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group of women who can make mean pots of soup and loads of bannock and 15 cakes in one day lol.

I have 3 photoshoots to post once i get more time. For the next two days i am taking halloween pictures at my office we have a lil backdrop set up for when all the kids come trick or treatin tommorrow.. alice is going to be snow white and abby is catepillar or a hotdog lol. well thats all for now.. wow november is in 2 sleeps

My sister Kelci and Nico

I finally worked on my sisters photos.. this was the worlds shortest shoot lol.. Nico was not into having his picture that day. "no pictures auntie" soo I will have to try again.. and all his facial expressions were of pokemon lmao. Charzard lol. But click on the side bar of my blog under my photography for views of all.

Thanksgiving

We had a great weekend that went by wayyyyy to fast. Abby turned 2months old, turkey dinner, visitors, grandparents, more turkey, yard work and a wedding reception. My good friend Christine Thompson now Swift got married on Saturday and we went to her turkey day reception. alice danced the night away.. heres a story to tear at your heartstrings

Alice has always been an independant kid, there will be a whole room of kids and she is content playing in the corner with some toy. Shes happy if kids play with her but is quite happy playing alone. So we went to the wedding and she was running around dancing up a storm on the dance floor and then some other lil girls around ages 3 and 4 were dancing. Alice tried to join them but they walked away, so she continued to twirl on her own. then they 4 other girls paired off and began twirling with each other and then fall down and laughing. Alice put her hand out to one girl so she could twirl and the lil girl snubbed her and walked away and then Alice just kind of stood there like why won't you play with me look on her face. Then the four girls all held hands and danced while alice danced on her own outside of their circle. One girl tried to include her but then another girl in teh group said no. Poor lil alice just continued to twirl and dance regardless. It broke my heart to watch but made me happy that she got over it quickly and enjoyed herself regardless. If only we could protect them from all heartbreak and all the mean girls who might snub them but sadly we have to let them dance alone sometimes. Here are some pics from the wedding and the weekend.