Dinner parties turned impromptu photoshoot

There was this one day...yesterday...when we had some good friends over for dinner we hadn't seen in years. We had planned to take some pictures of their kids for their Christmas card, and since I had things set up I thought "why not take some of our girls?" Things were working out just right. I mean, we had actually bathed them, brushed their hair and even put some clean clothes on them. Perfect right? Well, we didn't actually DO their hair, we just brushed it. And they also weren't really all that interested in having their picture taken because they had new/old friends to play with. So I tried...nothing really turned out. But they're still gorgeous in my eyes. It's pretty hard to get Cait to look at the camera and make a normal smiling face, actually it's pretty hard to get Paige to do that too. Hailey's pretty easy though...unless she's trying too hard. But really, when it comes down to it, I just love pictures of them no matter what they're doing. I like remembering these stages. Hailey with her big gorgeous smiles and new adult teeth; Paige just so sweet and shy around the camera and not quite sure where to look; and Cait just not caring one bit what anyone asks of her. Not one bit. Not at all. Ever. Ben and I sure adore each one of these girls and their very different personalities!

p.s. I added one picture of Hailey and her oldest friend Jocelyn. They were each others first friends. Chantelle and I used to get these girls together when they were just little tiny babies! They've grown a LOT since then!

Banff

So after the miscarriage Ben and I decided we needed to get away for a few days alone. We love Travelling with the girls because they really are the best, but we just needed to recharge. We spent a lot of time thinking about where we should go. We had quite a few fun destinations on the list...and the top of our list was San Francisco. We had it all planned out and we almost booked it, and then I had a last minute change of heart. I didn't want to go somewhere where we would be busy seeing the sites and playing tourist. I needed to relax and recharge. So we figured, why not go somewhere we've been a million times. That way if we decided to stay in and watch movies all day we wouldn't feel like were were missing out. So we booked into cute condo/hotel in Banff. Our place was perfect, a little one bedroom with a wood burning fireplace. Our first day they was gorgeous, fall weather. We woke up to animals exploring our patio and just relaxing in the sun. We slept in, watched movies, went to brunch, shopped, watched more movies and swam in the hot pools at our hotel. Then the next day we woke up to winter. It was gorgeous and cold. We decided to play tourist, so we had brunch at the Banff Springs, checked out Bow Falls, took the Gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain to take in the amazing views. But of course it was still a winter wonderland and there was nothing to be seen. The next day we drove to Lake Louise for a little tourist walk around, it was freezing again. So we just drove around and checked out the condition of the snow at the ski hills....not so good yet. And then we ate! Oh boy did we eat a LOT this trip. There are tons of really great little restaurants in Banff and we had fun making a list of the top ones worth eating at and making sure we fully enjoyed each experience. I gained some serious weight!! But it was worth it. We came home from this little 4 day trip recharged and ready to take on the rest of the year. It was exactly what we needed and I'm so grateful we got to get away!

Halloween

I normally love nothing more than a family themed costume. This year we were going to be a big ol' zombie wedding. Cute hey? However, only one of my children - and definitely not my husband - actually agreed with the theme. The other two were very insistent on being a Monster High (Abby Bominable) and a princess (either Elsa or Cinderella). So I went with it. It's all about them anyway! Friday the girls had no school so we relaxed at home, then decided to run down to the river and take a few pictures in costume...unfortunately I didn't realize we had no white facepaint and it's pretty hard to look like a zombie without some white. So we ran around town to every single store I could thing of that might have white left, and none did. Well, I guess the old dollar store downtown had some, which of course wasn't on my list and was just a last minute call just in case. So two hours later I got the girls home and quickly put them in their costumes, slapped some makeup on their faces and took some pictures. We got back just in time to eat dinner and head out for trick or treating. I don't know how I manage to take an entire day with nothing to do and turn it into a last minute gong show of rushing around and stressing. That's my mom talent I guess.

She's going to eat your brains!!

Don't let her fool you...she may be sweet but she's still a monster

She's a mix of her two favourite princess - Cinderella and Elsa (not the Elsa braid)

Poor Princess, she doesn't realize these two have got her under their spell. Never trust a Zombie and a Monster High!

Pumpkin time

Kids and Halloween equals a hundred times more fun. Actually kids and any holiday equals a hundred times more fun! This year has been a bit busier than normal and I wasn't quite in the mood for Halloween. But we had one gorgeous afternoon pop up out of nowhere, so Cait and I decorated our front porch for the Holiday and then had a little picnic lunch. Later that day when the girls came home from school we got the house all decked out. I have so much fun decorating for Halloween...it can be as tacky as you'd like and it's still cool. Right?? At least that's my opinion!

Anyway, earlier in October Ben took the girls to the store to buy their Halloween Pumpkins. We have a little tradition in our house where we like to let them design their own pumpkins 100%! It's not about pinterest, or how fancy other people do their pumpkins, it's about expressing our creativity! So the girls picked the biggest pumpkins they could and waited for the big carving day! Well...it finally came! Just barely in time. The girls got in on everything...from drawing their designs to scraping the insides out. Even Cait gave it a try!

In the end, even though I wasn't all that excited at first for the work of a Holiday like Halloween, I was happy we followed through on our traditions.  It seems like lots of work upfront, but the payout is so worth it! And really, Halloween is one of my favourite Holidays! How could I not make it awesome?