Flight Attendants

Good morning birdies. Outside the sliding glass doors in our personal paradise.

I had to HAD to write a shout out to our flight attendants- not that any of them are reading blogs these days. I'm assuming that they don't have time for things like that when they're busy "securing the cabin" etc...
We had fantastic flight crews on both flights, and by fantastic I mean they actually seemed happy to be flying with us. Except for the one time when one of them literally made me wake up one of our friends to remove his big headphones, just in case he gets all tangled up and chokes himself??? It was a really strange request, since our friend is in his 20s and has survived this long.
Anyways, reasons our flight crews (west jet if you're wondering) were awesome:

1. When a random Chinese lady got blocked going back to her seat by the flight crew distributing drinks, and chose to practically sit in my lap, every single one of them laughed so hard they had tears in their eyes. I have to admit, it was pretty hilarious, she didn't say a word or even look at me, she just made herself comfortable and well, we were all very entertained.

2. When Steve made me fill out all the customs stuff on board and said something to the effect of "I got married so I'd never have to do this" (ha ha) they all gave me their condolences, including a HUG! It was pretty funny, and no I don't have issues filling forms out, in fact, I really enjoy the process and I think my writing is neater, and that's important on some weird level, right?
3. On our flight home we had a "trainee" who was very purposefully reading his script every time he had to make an announcement. Steve and I know this because we were sitting in row 1 for that flight, so we had access to all the "behind the scenes" of that flight and it was VERY entertaining. His trainer would say, "Okay, this time don't say that cheesy beginning part" and every time he would use the script she would die, it was hilarious.
4. Ha, on that note, the female "trainer" had some awesome mishaps during the fasten your seatbelt/how to inflate life vest demo, that we were all in stitches for the first 10mins of our flight, it was epic.
5. When we were waiting for our baggage with the million other people waiting for baggage at 2a.m. our lovely flight attendant came running over to a little girl and gave her the stuffed puppy she had left on the plane- she didn't have to ask whose it was, she knew exactly which little girl the puppy belonged to. Amazing.

Thanks flight attendants, we loved sharing our flights with you!

Airplane Etiquette

Flowers at Tulum
Just some random thoughts Steve and I had while discussing our flights, enjoy!

1. Why or how is it that anytime a kid walks down the aisle they find a way to kick your feet or hit your shoulder? Without fail, every time, even if you think your appendages are tucked safely out of the danger zone they still manage to make contact, it's so weird/funny.
2. Passing gas while walking down the aisle is equal to just bending over and letting it off in someone's face, therefore you should squeeze the cheeks to avoid being "that gross guy" who did it like, 5 times...
3. Before boarding your flight- smell check. Nobody wants to sit next to somebody with BO nor does anybody want to share conversation with a person who has ridiculously bad breathe.
4. Which brings me to my biggest pet peeve coming home... When you fall asleep on the plane next to a stranger, isn't it more, um, appropriate (?) to direct your face away from them and perhaps not sleep with your mouth gaping open, thus blowing your disgusting bad breathe all over the other person? I thought so...
5. If your kid is violently sick the day before you leave, and is still violently sick when you're at the airport, perhaps it's a good idea to call the travel agent and see if you can get your kid slightly more "well" before boarding a flight with a few hundred other people. And on that note, if your kid is filling up everyone's "air sickness bags" it might be a good idea to take them to the bathroom and save them the stress of trying to heave into such a small target, thus saving the rest of us all of the awesome sound effects :)

Yesterday in Mexico

I was really REALLY enjoying this view...

Sigh... I very consciously took mental pictures like this all week because I knew what would be awaiting us in Calgary would look much more like winter.

Some observations from the week:
1. White sand is preferable to white snow any day of the week- I would know because I enjoyed the sand for 7 full days and I am not enjoying the snow here at home in anyway.
2. A cool breeze in Calgary is not the same as a cool breeze in Mexico.
3. Just because the sun is shining does not mean you can feel the heat from it.
4. Winter in Mexico is more like summer in Calgary.

I will post more photos in the coming days. We did a lot of fun stuff and took lots of pictures, but since we don't have an indestructible camera, I have to wait to get some of the pictures back from our friends, the Fraser's. Their camera was basically the best of all time for this sort of trip and Angela took an overload of awesome pictures, so we'll wait for some of those.
We really couldn't be more grateful to our parents (both sets) and other family members who stepped in and helped make this week so fun for our kids while we were away too. They were both thrilled to see us but I think they really enjoyed all the extra time with other familiar faces. Kalea even had her very first official swimming lesson! We will post pictures from that as we get them as well.
As for us, our week was full of much of what you see in the above photo, sun, sand, palm trees. We had an awesome day at XPLOR zip lining through the forest, off-roading in ATV's and swimming through an underground river. We saw the ruins at Tulum and heckled with some very charismatic Mexicans. We enjoyed a bunch of activities at our resort including beach volleyball, tennis, snorkeling, windsurfing (I can windsurf, yipee!), catamaran sailing, sunbathing, etc... We ate too much and enjoyed the night time entertainers, haha or making fun of them... Our flight home was delayed so we got home much later than anticipated, but on the bright side, due to lack of superior a/c in the Cancun airport, we got to enjoy the warmth for a little longer than we expected to!
All in all it was a much needed break from our everyday routine and a great opportunity to really take some time just for us. In all honesty a week away from our kids was a lot harder than we thought it would be, especially seeing all the cute kids at our resort. We even got a little bored with not having anyone else to be responsible for, it felt weird. But it was great, it let me know that I have indeed become a mother and breaks are good and well deserved and even needed, but I am sure happy to be back at my "job".

Blink and You'll Miss It

*please excuse the awesome picture, someday our kids will be more cooperative... at least that's what people tell me*

We have had a very full/busy/fun Christmas season.
It was great to visit with family and friends and enjoy the break from our everyday routines.
My favorite part of Christmas might have been church on Sunday though, more specifically our Relief Society lesson. Wow. It was from Neil L. Andersen's conference talk Tell Me the Stories of Jesus. What a perfect lesson for the Sunday after Christmas. It was a great opportunity to reflect on the Savior's life, mission, crucifixion and resurrection and ponder what it is that I am supposed to teach my own children about Him. We discussed the significance of His humble birth, how we can teach our children from just a few verses that we don't have to have everything in order to create a purposeful life. It was a great reminder that when the world says more is better, Christ taught and really exemplified the opposite, less really is more.
This Christmas for our family was a good one, probably because we had the means to really say "thank you" to some of the people in our lives who deserve it most, and also "pay it forward" in a few ways that felt way better than receiving any of our own gifts. Last year felt heavy and this year we were able to lift that heaviness from some others, and that is what has made this Christmas so special for Steve and I.
The other thing that made it so great was our kids. Wow. They were so much fun on Christmas morning- they even took off upstairs to go play with a few things in the middle of opening presents, so Steve and I got to open ours in peace!
It was fun to see them so happy and to watch Brynlee get so excited about everything because she saw her big sister so excited. I am all about positive peer pressure!
There's something so special about knowing that at Christmas, we get to enjoy these little slice's of heaven, I'm already looking forward to next Christmas!

Christmas is Almost Here!

Really wanting to post pictures of my decorations/kids/baking etc... curse Kalea and her need to chew things. A new camera cord is probably on it's way to me in the next 24hrs :) Joy...
So Christmas is coming and this year I am SO excited. I am pretty sure that Steve is slightly annoyed at my level of excitement, but I just get SO SO SO excited at this time of the year. This year I have a few reasons
#1: We can actually afford Christmas presents for us and others this year, not that gifts are super important, but it's really nice to not have to worry about money at this time of the year.
#2: Steve let me get my very first and very own beautiful new pre-lit tree and gave up on his dream of a real one- at least for this year :)
#3: I have found an amazing sugar cookie and icing recipe this year, and I gave most of them away! Maintaining weight loss makes me excited too :)
#4: We don't have any newborns/infants this year which means we are getting infinitely more sleep in the days leading up to Christmas- even with the kids teething and/or having colds, and are therefore having a lot more fun!
#5: We are leaving on vacation in T minus 12 days! Is there such a thing as "The 12 Days Before Vacation"? I think there should be, hmmm...
#6: Kalea is really on her way to potty training. She might already be potty trained if it weren't for the hectic-ness of this time of the year and the fact that I have so little motivation to be consistent when I'm running in 10 different directions, but she is doing great to remind me! Ha and of course what is Kalea potty training without a funny story? Our home teachers came over last night and Kalea amused herself by coming up and downstairs a million times- once in a completely new outfit. She was also blowing kisses over her shoulder at the guys on her way up the stairs- evil girl. Anywho, we put a movie on for her so that she would stay out of our stuff and maybe not come up and down the stairs so much. So when the guys left I went upstairs to find her sitting in front of the tv on her potty. She was so proud of herself "Mommy I potty!" and all that jazz... I was proud too, although I was also a little sullen, for this child doesn't ever use the little potty and the bucket that catches urine/feces was downstairs where the little potty used to be. She basically pee'd on the floor, but had a spot to sit while she did it, grrrrrreat :) But yay, she used the little potty!
See, so much to be excited about!

Girlfriends

This weekend we went up to Edmonton to see family and friends. I took my camera because I thought "Oh I will for sure get a picture of all us girls this time"... So I got pictures of 2 of our kids dancing instead. Judging from the joyful expressions, you can only imagine how happy I was to be around "my girls" again. It is weird to think that most of us have known each other since the age Kalea and Avery are now... It was SO fun to see most everyone and their kids and talk about all the craziness that is life now, and reminisce about all the fun we had. So that was my Saturday morning/early afternoon...
Friday night was my night out with Becky, Olivia and Cassie. Holy laugh fest! My abs were aching like I had consistently done a million sit-ups with no break, it hurt SO bad but it felt SO good :P We went out to Tokyo Express pretty much just like we used to before dances or at least once a weekend. I'm sure all the staff were wondering what was wrong with us crazy white girls, but it was such a blast! The best part of the conversation had to be when we were all kind of wondering out loud why we liked certain boys so much? Really, what was so great about so-and-so anyway? LOL It was so SO funny! We also talked about kids of course, and Cassie and I shared the "horror" of life with TWO not just one! Ha, sorry girls!
As a family we enjoyed time with Steve's Oma and Opa Behr, Wilf & Cindy's clan, a little visit with Serena and Jesse et al, and the Liberty Christmas Party, along with Advent at Cam and Cassie's on Sunday night. To say the weekend was jam-packed would be a HUGE understatement. It was fun, but I was exhausted by the end of it.
Our trip up couldn't have come at a better time though, this time of the year always makes me miss those faces that are so much a part of my past and hopefully still a huge part of my future. I am SO thankful for this family of friends that I have and cannot wait for our next "reunion".

3 Hi-lites of the Day

#1: A conversation with myself, because we all know my kids don't/can't really answer me.
"Kalea, why are you naked? Brynlee, why are you naked? Where did your diapers go? Who pooped?" blank stares...."Kalea do you need to go potty? Brynlee why is there poop on your bum? Oh you're the one that pooped" etc...

#2: Kalea "grooming" and thus making my day "interesting".
"Mommy? Mommy? Mom?" "Yes, Kalea" "Mom, here now" up the stairs I go to find my 2 year old in the bathroom doorway holding Daddy's very nice/new/fully charged razor in hand and crying whilst holding her girly parts saying "Mommy? Owwwww, hurt!"

#3: Upon my return from Christmas shopping.
Wow, our house feels super warm tonight, I wonder how the basement feels? I walk downstairs and the basement is more like a furnace room. Hmmm, interesting... I go upstairs to grab something to eat and check the thermostat... "Steeeeeeeeve?" "What?" "Were you aware that the thermostat is set to 32?!?!?" awkward silence "Steeeeeeven?" "Ummmmmmmm, maybe?"

And that boys and girls is the story of my life.