Happy 2nd Birthday Grace!!

 What an exciting day! Seriously though...once we told Grace that her birthday was coming soon...everyday the week before her birthday she would say with so much excitement, 'Its my Burfday!".  I decided to go with doing big girl things the week before since she was so pumped...I started napping her in Parks' room and made the bottom bunk all girly for her.  Than soon after it was a fight to get her into her crib at nighttime. Soooo a few days before her birthday she started sleeping in her BIG GIRL BED:) It was a pretty painless transition, first week I would lay with her until she'd fall asleep (about 10mins). Than I explained just a few days ago that she needed to stay in her bed and no more sleeping with Mama...after a little force and patience, she stays in her bed with no problem and goes to sleep right away:) We've had to cut her nap time down to an hour max otherwise she stays up too late.  Ofcourse that wasn't enough growing up, so that week before her big day i started getting her to use the potty...she would always strip her diapers off all day long, so everytime she used the potty Parks and I would clap and make a BIG deal about what a big girl she was...and within 3 days, no more diapers!!!!! She wet the bed once because she didn't pee before bedtime...that last pee is crutial, but besides that she's diaperless day and night:)
Now a week of being a 2 year old she is a pro, she put her princess seat on the toilet, pushes her stool, climbs up all by herself....than yells for me to wipe her!  Its awesome:) During all this I also stopped giving her her bottles too!!  That was more of a challenge for me more than anything because I just love holding her and watching her suck and look so little and sweet....she couldn't care less about not having it...she asks every now and again, but we just change the topic and she forgets:) She weighes almost 29lbs now!  And is healthy and happy as can be:) The night before her birthday we did a family dinner at Gran and Grandad's house with Mark&Merrick and Anders, Barb&Ben, Rachel and Emma, Mike with Reed, Isabelle and River, Grandad and Uncle Paul!  Grace was thrilled with all the attention..and especially being sung Happy Birthday to...she had the sweetest smile on her face.

 The next day was her Birthday Party at our house!  We had 13 little people running around everywhere, balloon twisting, horrible disaster 'pinterst' birthday cake and lots of other goodies, followed by presents!  It was a great day for her and she had so much fun with all her friends:)

The cake was a pain in the butt, but the marshmellows on a stick were cute and very popular:)

Parrttyyy! 

Balloon Twisting was a hit! Thanks to Sara Beth!

Grace was sooo happy with her balloon 'doggie' 

What's a party without the babies...Talia, Brock and Royce (we missed out on pics with 2 month old beauties Cait and Lillian).

Soooo pretty, Grace and Vida Lyons (and yes they are a mini Matt and mini Brandon!) 

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!

Make a Wish! 

May Long Weekend

We went up to the Lake for the first time this year for May Long Weekend, the weather was pretty nice for May and we had a great time.  We arrived a day before everyone else because of Matts schedule and had to leave a day earlier.  The first night that we arrived Parks was so excited to start fishing, so he and Matt worked together and caught one right away!! The kids were pumped:)  The rest of the family arrived for the weekend the next day/night...Parks ended up catching his first fish all by himself!! and it was BIG too! It was nice to all be together...Rob& Tammy +5 kids, Barb&Ben +2kids, Mike&Jess+3 kids, Mark&Merrick +1 kid, Mum&Dad and us:)

The first catch of the weekend:)

Parks' first Fish!! 

Twins:) 

Enjoying the view;) 

The Lake Life...gum boots and underwear

Eyelash Extensions

I have been so blessed with venturing into the world of working.  I never thought I would find something so fulfilling...and never have to leave my house/kids!  After getting trained in Utah, I started getting the ball rolling at the beginning of April...and now at almost 2 months in, I have matched the money that I put in with getting trained/supplies...I have 15 wonderful ladies that I do each month, I'm no longer accepting new clients and already training a friend that is interested in what I do...Life is good and I am so grateful for this opportunity to help provide for our family and allowing Matt more time spent with the kids while Mama gets a break:)

I am passionate about what I do, eyelash extensions have been given a bad rep all because of how the majority of people have been trained to do them.  Most places that are affordable don't do every lash, it is really tedious work getting every lash.  The medium and baby sized ones are hard to find (and that is where my tape up/layering technique works wonders).  Getting all the lashes (minus the itty bitty stubs that are just growing in) ensures your extensions will last a lot longer!  Lashes are constantly growing and replacing themselves, extensions do not make your natural lashes weaker or thinner.  If the extension is put on properly the natural lash will continue to grow as it would normally.  A lot of my clients have had bad extension experiences in the past...like extensions falling off the 1st/2nd week of getting them, clumps of glue attached causing irritation, losing all their lashes because the extensionist attached the single extension to 2 of the clients natural lashes...so when the longer lash is at the end of its growth cycle and falls out it takes the new fresh baby one that is also attached with it leaving NOTHING! I'm excited to share my skills and do training.  I'm not worried at all about competion, once people see and hear how wonderful their extensions are word of mouth travels quickly:) 

Nana's Visit

My Mama Bear came out for a visit at the end of April for a week.  It went by so quickly.  The weather was rainy...i think we only had one day with sun.  Mom was able to relax though and catch up on some needed rest.  It is always so nice to have her here.  The kids think the world of their Nana.  We are so excited to fly out for a 2 1/2 week visit in June:) 

getting to do some gardening with Nana on our sunny day:)

I wish I would have remembered to take a before picture...it was a wonderful change! She has very blonde tiny lashes. I broke her in with the shortest length that I have, so it would look completely natural...

Grace Update!

Grace Carol Hill

Grace will be turning 2 years old at the end of this month! wowza!  She is a funny little girl, loves being girlie, but loves playing rough with her brother.  She will do whatever Parks asks her to do, they play a lot better with each other now...she doesn't always take what Parks is playing with.  It really is so wonderful to listen to them playing. Parks always does something silly to make her laugh and she always cracks up. Parks understands her vocabulary so well:) and their little conversations melt my heart.  Grace loves being outside, she's very independent at the park...she hasn't really taken to the run bike yet...and her feet don't quite touch the pedals on the tricycle that we have yet, so she has no interest in bikes at the moment.  She loves swimming!  and gets soooo excited when we tell her we are going to the pool.  She has no fear, I cant wait to get her up to the Lake this Summer:) 

She has been back to her healthy self after months of being sick a while back, but I think her immunity is stronger than ever now:)  Potty training has been off and on.  I'm not pushing it with her, but recently she has decided to use the potty a lot more.  That tells me that it is time.  She had two poops in the potty yesterday all by herself!! She loves dumping it into the toilet, flush and say 'bye bye poop'.  Whatever works right!  She eats really well unless Parks says its yucky, than she will say its yucky...and not eat it!!
She can be a little too dramatic sometimes and cries out for every bonk on the head and tumble that she takes, but we are trying hard not to baby her anymore.  She loves her 'bubba' still.  My goal was to have her off bottles by 2 years old (that's how i did it with Parks) but I'm struggling with how cute she looks with it and that she is still my baby.  She only takes 4 oz before bed and sometimes for her nap I'll give her the same if she doesn't eat enough for lunch...
Her talking is incredible, must be from hearing Parks all day long.  She will repeat anything she hears.  Her latest question went from 'Why?' to 'Mama, what you talkin 'bout?' She always wants to know what we are talking about...lol and she wont stop asking until you tell her!  When she is excited to go to the park or swimming or even to walmart...lol She will shout out 'yipee yippee yipeee' Its adorable:) 

Her little voice is awesome, I need to take more videos.
A week ago when Nana was visiting we decided to get Grace's ears pierced.  She always asks me about my earrings so i told her it would be a poke poke in her ear and than earrings!! She did awesome, they numbed her ears first with a cream, waited about 20 minutes, than two girls pierced them at the same time.  She cried for about a minute, more from the sound and motion...and was back to her normal happy self.  We explained to her about no touching, i clean them 1-2 times a day. and they look great!

Before getting earrings...

Grace with earrings!

We are so grateful to have a son AND daughter, they are such a precious blessing in our life.

Parks Update

Parks at 4 1/2 years old...

Parks is an awesome little boy:)  He turned 4 in January and is like a little sponge...he remembers everything! He is a lot more adventurist now especially with swimming.  He loves it so much and with a life jacket on he swims around the pool no problem.  He now can dunk his head under, goes down slides with minimal hesitation;)  He loves doing 'school' and is soooo excited about going to pre-k this year.  He knows how to spell his name all by himself!! and if he's willing to focus he can say the whole alphabet as well as recognize what each letter looks like.  He's always drawing and writing letters on paper.  We are so proud of our boy!

He loves going to church, and goes to Primary with the 'big kids' for 2 hours now.  He has been asked to say the opening prayer infront of everyone in Primary next Sunday and he is so pumped about it!  Its usually a fight between Parks and Grace on who gets to say prayer around here...cute none the less:)
His new ritual every morning is: he wakes up and immediately gets out of his pjs, picks his clothes for the day, and than gets dressed!  Its awesome because he use to LIVE in his pjs...
As for food, Parks has improved A LOT...he still only likes his veggies raw with the exception of corn.  But he will usually try something even if its new and looks funny:) The kid eats all day long...he's like a bottomless pit and I'm sure thats not going to change anytime soon!  Matt and Parks love watching the cartoon series of Transformers and another favorite is America's Funniest Home Videos...its so cute to hear them both laughing there heads off!  Parks may look like me, but he sure reminds me a lot of his Daddy...Especially the things that come out of his mouth!  Anyone that knows Matt well, knows that he has his own special vocabulary...and Parks has picked up on it.  Here are a few examples:  After doing something he wasn't suppose to do he says "Dad, I'm a little fart knocker".  "I'm the man!". "Hey Mom...Gracie just clocked me in the kisser!". "I'm wasn't freaking out!!".  "Ouch! I hit my knackers".  "Grace, your a crazy goofer!"...it goes on and on, I'm going to start writing them down when I hear him:)

The new 'funny' faces

 Future Fire Fighter!

Parks no longer naps...but every few days around 5pm he disappears and passes out! (Looks like he tried hard here still holding his pen) 

Easter and a WEDDING!

The Easter long weekend was BUSY! On the Friday I did lashes in the morning, than got mine done at noon...it was Matt's Mum's 65 birthday, so we went out for a very yummy dinner (adults only which was nice...

...than had cake with the kids back at Barb and Ben's place.

The next day was Tammy's younger sister's wedding in Lethbridge, we were invited to the reception (which was beautiful).  Our kids loved running around the church playing with cousins and dancing, they were exhausted to say the least!

Handsome Boys

As good as it gets with my husband;)

Grace and Zach dancing:) She was in heaven getting to bust a move with all her cousins, it was pretty cute!

Parks refused to look at the camera! But a perfect picture wouldn't be normal for our family anyways:)

On Sunday Morning the Easter Bunny left some goodies, than off to church full of sugar! 

Easter dinner was at Grant and Sue's that night for yummy Turkey, Stuffing...and all that good stuff:)

Here are my cute birds nests that I made for part of our Easter Dessert!

 Kids were really tired after that! Than Monday...relaxing morning, did lashes in the afternoon and back to Grant and Sue's for Easter Dinner (part 2) lol We are very blessed to have so many fun things going on!