:: Things I'm loving ::

:: I know it's Saturday, so the above title on the photo does not apply, but I used it anyway ;) ::



:: I'm loving actually taking time to read one of my stocking stuffers from Mr. L...it's a great issue that Instyle January! ::


:: I'm loving that I just ordered a new bamboo blind for my big-huge-entirely-too-big-for-our-kitchen window...inspired from a few different movie kitchens (It's complicated & Somethings Got to Give & The Proposal) -- then just the other day I was reading Eddie Ross' blog and came across this photo, I was sold! So I hopped on here this morning and ordered me up a $112.00 special order blind for my big-huge-entirely-too big window {as seen below} - just so you know it measures 70"x40" - told you it was HoooGe! ::



:: I'm loving my new do, it was time for a change {thinking about 2011, hint hint} and thus thought I would overhaul my lovely locks and change it up for the New Year. Here is the before - sorry for the crappy phone photo ::



:: And here is the after - I love it, I love my hair stylist too. She does a great job of listening to what I want and I don't think she has ever let me down and I've been having my hair done by her & her hubby since I was 12. That's a stinkin' good track record! ::



:: Lastly, I'm loving my Citrine earrings I received from Mr. L for Christmas. They are beautiful and quite different to anything else I have. I also love that they are my birthstone and mean hope, cheerfulness, fidelity, youth and health - what great meaning! ::



:: Hope all you lovelies are having a great weekend, we were out last night with out the babes {thanks Aunty L & Uncle J for taking them for us} celebrating a families going away to another country for missions - we had a fabulous time! And tonight we're going over to other friends for a nice chill night of Chinese food and to watch Wall Street - Happy Weekend Y'all! ::

:: Oh, and just a little praise report, we have dear friends who got to see their son ski down hill this last week, you can go here to read all about their story - they are lovely people and we celebrate with them as they see God's plans unfold for their family ::

:: Yesterday ::

:: Yesterday, yesterday was a bad day for me...no specific reason as to why it was. It just was. Too much schedule {this coming from the girl who loves to schedule scheduling} to my boys being at each others throats from dawn till dusk. To things needing to be back to "normal" and having no time to create "normal" - blah blah blah, you get the point ::

:: I'm generally a really positive person and thus not getting too down about anything, but yesterday I just couldn't shake this overwhelming feeling, feeling useless yet overworked and yet through that valley, I know that God is with me walking with me every step of the way ::

:: So, waking up this morning, I thought "ahhh, at least it's not yesterday" - Ha! I woke up feeling like a tonne weight was sitting on top of my head! But the party must go on, people must get dressed, beds made, snacks prepared, laundry completed...you know how it is! Finally though, my head ache is gone and I'm hoping some time alone with hubby for dinner will make me feel even better ::

:: Here's to new tomorrows and a large dose of patience ;) ::

:: Mish Mash ::

:: Life currently feels like a bit of a mish-mash; we've just started back to school - which while it feels good to be back into routine, it also means we're rushing out of the house every day. The house is in the between stages of having Christmas decor up and having it down. So currently I have no dining room table - along with taking down the Christmas decor, I like to re-decorate and re-organize. This makes the job 10x more fun, but more work too ::



:: We're also thinking of moving and thus putting our home on the market, not sure where we would move to or if we even want to move; but we are mulling it over and praying about it ::

:: We're also waiting for another snow day here in the lower mainland as of this morning they {the weather peeps, that is} said it was supposed to snow this afternoon. We have yet to see anything other than a little freezing rain. Boo! ::

:: Oh well, the boys are snuggled up in their beds still and quiet...Mr. L has fallen asleep watching some show on the discovery channel. So all is content and perfect in my world. I'm going to head to rest sooner than later too. This mornings routine came quickly and without warning, must try to do better tomorrow morning! ::

:: Blessings y'all ~ hope this year has been wonderful thus far - we're only 4 days in..it should be ;) ::

:: Back Dating ::

:: I'll be posting a few posts that I didn't have time to get up during our busy Fall 2010 -- here is the first of many about our date night to Jack Johnson and another one of Halloween - enjoy and happy 2nd day of 2011! ::

XoXo * Shawna

:: Happy New Year; 2011 ::

:: We had a fairly low-key New Year celebration, but fun non-the-less ::

:: Here is what I wore yesterday, the last day of 2010...and it's probably what I'll wear today, the first day of 2011 - Ha Ha! ::

:: This is the same top I wore last year for New Years, I'm that kind of girl...not afraid to wear something on the exact same celebration year to year. However last year I wore the top as a dress with leggings - okay too much info...blah blah blah ::



:: I am wearing my nice *new birthday riding boots from my parents...I love them, don't often love boots as much as I love these, hope they last..I'm brutal on my shoes, but I'm trying to be nicer to them ;) ::

*More on my birthday celebration(s) later on, geesh - the last three months have been a whirlwind of celebrations & work, but I'll get to it!*



:: Here are a few more official shots aka: not taken with my phone, from our little NYE celebration. We ate yummy yummy Indian food and had a few sweet treats and some delish fruit for dessert ::






:: I picked up a few movies and one of them was Australia -- neither of us had seen it, yes apparently we do live under rocks! It's been released since 2008 ~ geesh, where the heck does the time go! ::



:: At any rate it was a phenomenal movie and would love to sit down and watch it again! Thanks for celebrating with us M&L! ::



:: Today we're just hanging out this morning, enjoying watching a new movie while the boys play with their new train set. It's a gorgeous day - clear and sunny - "cold like Calgary" said Mr. L this morning. And he's right, almost too cold to even go for a brisk walk ::

:: We're off to family events later this afternoon and for the evening..We've got very little going on for the next two days. I'll be cleaning up the Christmas decor and enjoying my three boys - the perfect way to start off the new year I think! ::

:: Happy 2011, I'll be back with my resolution word for the year and some reflection on last years word - here is a link to my 2009 word too ::

:: Fetching our Tree ::

:: We had a rather long Cranberry Creek year and didn't end up finishing our years worth of sales until the 15th of december - so we didn't get our tree until the 16th ::



:: We had a GREAT time rain and all, going to Ikea to get our tree and having dinner. Paul's parents were able to join us which made it extra special ::



:: Our family with the beautiful tree ::



:: I got the boys to stand still for one moment, the moment after they both ran through a 1 foot deep puddle...if you can't tell from their water-logged pant legs ::



:: Everyone watching the boys steer the tree out to the van ::



:: Great night full of the traditions that make up our family - including the $2.99 meatball dinner at Ikea! ::

:: 2010 Holiday House Tour ::

:: Christmas may barely be over, but boy am I itching to clear out the clutter, and take down all the beautiful decor we put up just to celebrate Jesus' birth ::

:: So I thought that before I remove it I should post about it - just for memories sake ;) ::

Shawna's Holiday Home Tour 2010

:: The wreath on my front door is one I made from a tutorial you can find here. It cost me a whole whopping $3 - totally love it and hope it lasts until next year! ::



:: We have two different trees, one in our Living Room {front room - just off of our entry way} that is fake and this year, my friend Lisa found this awesome mesh at one of our local Christmas shops, and so I got white, other than the fact that I LOVE white, it was also on for more of a deal than the metallic mesh. I thought it would be beautiful as just a white and silver tree, and of course it would have. But once we got putting on the decor, the boys needed to have some colour - so we chose red, and I love how it turned out! ::

:: We get the boys a new ornament every year, and this is what we chose this year ::


:: My aunt passed down some of her old Christmas ornaments, and this little birdie along with two others found a home on my metal tray ::




:: This was the very first Christmas wreath I put up this year, it was a snowy day in November that we had, I've borrowed this lovely white and green holly wreath from my Marm...and I think it looks perfect in my kitchen window ::

:: A few of our most very favorite Christmas candies ::

:: I picked up some white button mums along with some white tulips to place around the house in canning jars and loved how they turned out ::

:: Lastly, here is our real tree in our family room. It's a perfect little tree from Ikea - it was the perfect little tree for us. All decked out in white and silver along with our beautiful tree skirt and stockings, this is definitely my most favorite room during the holidays ::

:: Beyond the decorations, our home was filled with a joyous celebration for Christmas ~ hope yours was too! ::

:: Merry Christmas ::

:: BoyohBoy, it's been a super busy couple months for us around our home...but I'll be back once Christmas events have settled down and we're back in the somewhat normal rountine ;) ::

:: Merry Christmas Y'all - Pray you're blessed over and over and over! ::

:: This Last Week ::

:: OHMYGOODNESS!!! I must have been busy over the past month cause this was sitting in my "to be edited file" on blogger...ooopss! Must schedule in doing up a schedule of all the things we've been up to as of late! Better late than never I guess ;) ::

:: Monday ::

:: Cole's 3rd birthday was on Monday - we celebrated with our families in the evening. It was a great day, he was well aware that it was "MY Birfday" and we loved sharing in his excitement {more on his celebration later} ::



:: Tuesday ::

:: First thing {like 5 hours after we went to bed on Monday night} I was up and at 'em getting ready to head to Duncan for the day with the boys. We had yet to meet Paisley in person. So since my parents were going over for a couple days I figured we could park our car at the ferry and walk on with them, then return home later that night. So that is just what we did. Me coming over was also going to be a surprise to my SIL --- and I'm delighted to say we pulled off a great surprise. I showed up at Christy's MOPS group and surprised her. And truly, she was surprised! It was so great. So great to hug her, meet and cuddle Paisley and of course to be with Denay ::









:: My parents spent the afternoon with the kids so Christy and I could catch up. It was a great afternoon of coffee & shopping. This was Christy's first time out with out both the babies, so it was great break for her...and me ;) ::



:: Here are all 4 kids together, almost smiling - obviously God was with us ;) ::



:: Getting in my cuddles with sweet Paisley, she and I are really close to God, look how big our hair do's are ;) ::


:: Sweet Paisley - just being sweet! ::

:: Wednesday ::

:: Was a complete write off! It started off with bible study at church then a meeting with our pastor regarding our Christmas event @ church, then off to pick kids up from classes and home to re-group from the whirlwind trip to the island and all of Cole's birthday events, as well as to prepare for his class birthday the next day! Phew! ::

:: Thursday::

:: Was Mr. L's birthday! He turned 30 something, he get's his birthday off from work {as do all the employees} but decided to take it on the 12th of November as then he would have a 4 day long weekend since November 11th is a stat holiday ::

:: Jacob got to go hang out with Auntie Lisa, Emma & Zach while I went with Cole to school for party day. He was so stinkin' excited to have me at school, to have the class teddy bear home with him for the first time and to get something from the birthday box at school...all so SO exciting for my little guy! ::



:: Here is my little boy talking about the class teddy bear and his show 'n tell...he brought his leash, his leash that Grampy & Grammie bought him for his birthday as he loves anything with clips and the fact that it's expandible is just so much fun to him! ::



:: Here he is blowing out his candles for his class birthday cake {Don't worry that's not really cake, it's just a pretend cake} -- after that we enjoyed cupcakes that I made and then headed over to Aunties house to have a visit and lunch together ::

:: Later that afternoon I dropped the kids off to my parents place for them to have a sleep over {ahh, BLISS!} -- Mr. L met me at home and we got ready to go out to our favorite local restaurant for dinner - we both ordered steak and it was AWEsome! After dinner we headed to one of my personal favorite places to hang out; Starbucks! We both had a red cup of bliss and lovely conversation -- I decided to take pictures of each other. This is the order in which they were taken ::




:: mmmm, our lovely red cups of bliss ::



:: Mr. L being, Mr. L ;) ::






:: Me, being a dork ::



:: Mr. L commented that he couldn't get my "bump-it" in the picture - HA --- he knows that I don't have a bump-it, but I don't doubt that he was having issues getting all that mane in the photo ;) ::



:: And a somewhat normal shot of me :) - and yes, I was wearing white jeans with my black stiletto boots...in November, so sue me! ::

:: Friday ::

:: Wake up, pick up the boys from G&G's - take JJ to school, run some errands with Cole, return to pick up JJ from school, go home for lunch and naps, have a visit with a super sweet friend, make dinner, start making cake for super sweet friend, bathe&bed boys, and die on the couch at exactly 10:09 pm ::

:: Saturday ::

:: I wake at the crack of dawn {which is 5:54 am to me} start back on decorating the cake as it was due by 1pm that day ::



:: Here is the finished product of the 60th birthday cake - cute colors hey?!? I loved it and Mo did an absolutely fabulous job putting all the details for the party together ::

:: Later that afternoon I was off to a baby shower for a life long bestie that had a baby boy a few weeks ago. Malachi is a darling little warm bundle and I couldn't wait to celebrate with her & hold him! ::



:: Here we are, Lisa looks awesome and oh, that sweet boy, I could eat him right up! ::

:: Sunday ::

:: Our boys were up an hour earlier as we had turned our clocks back on Saturday night...which meant that at 4:45 am we were saying our good mornings...hmph. We headed off to church then ran a few errands, then home for brunch and naps. We all needed them but didn't all succeed at getting one. Around 3 pm we headed over the bridge to Mr. L's parents place to celebrate our birthdays {Cole's, Paul's & Mine} with his family ::



:: Here are Mr. L & Me with our cakes -- doesn't everybody need TWO cakes!?!? Ha! ::



:: Here is what our family photo looked like...I should have entered this one into RH photography's loony family photo contest! Look close, Mr. L is smoking a chocolate cigar from the top of the cake, JJ is pulling a "watchalookingat?" pose, Coley is saying "itwasn'tme!" and I'm oblivious to all the crazy antics the boys are up to! Ha Ha Ha! ::



:: Here is a close up of the chocolate cake -- It was oh so yummy and rich! Thanks Mum & Dad for hosting us for our birthday...lemme tell you, the talk of our household has been the train set at Nana & Papa's house, JJ told me today that he dreamed of going to your house to play with the train set last night - too cute! ::