Memories, Dreams and Reflections 2014

It is sad to see that I haven't been on my blog and haven't posted a thing since May. I hope to be able to change that as I continue to find a balance with my family and with my ETSY shop. Each year I seem to make positive strides at finding that perfect balance.

As I have done now for the past four years, I will be posting for the MDR 2014. I absolutely love doing this each year. I can quickly go back and see what I wrote, the changes we've gone through as a family. I'm shocked at the things I forget in just a couple years. If you are on the fence about participating, do it! I promise you won't regret going back through and reminiscing.

Links to my previous MDR posts:

MDR 2010
MDR 2011
MDR 2012
MDR 2013

1. Me
I know it's a really crappy iPhone picture, but I don't have any pictures on my main camera with only me.

2. I Love You

My love for these 3 kiddos is like an endless river of loving love ;)

3. Still Laughing
I LOVE this photo so much! I love how close these kiddos are, but sometimes the little one's can make their sister go crazy. I know she wouldn't trade it for the world though. 

4. Winter Wonderland
The kids and I made our first "big" snowman. This is one aspect about Quebec I love, the snow! I love watching the snow through our windows, love walking in the snow and love the sound of the snow crunch beneath my boots. I love sledding, snowball fights and soon I know I will love ice skating...when I actually try it.  If we ever go back to living in Arizona, having snow would be one of the biggest things I would miss. I'm sure when I was little I built snowmen with my parents, but this was the first time I remember making a decent size snowman. And of course, the kids named him Olaf.  

5. Birthday
For Parker's 4th birthday we decided to have his birthday party on a train. We took an Amtrak from Montreal, QC to Plattsburgh, NY and back. It was the coolest party I have done. We all had a blast and the train ride was relatively stress free.

6. Friends

We were so lucky to be able to stay with our good friends for a few days during our stay in AZ. After almost 2 years, it was so great to be able to see them.

7. I was inspired

This is a picture from Eliana's 2nd birthday. She had asked for a Frozen/Tangled birthday party and after much thought, inspiration finally hit me which resulted in this dress. A mash up of both themes.

8. Spring Fever
I think I've started to understand the true concept of, "spring fever" now that I have lived in a place that experiences some pretty cold and snowy winters. My old definition of spring fever meant the great desire for spring training games to start. I sure miss going to spring training games.

9. Travel or Vacation

Our trip to the Grand Canyon on our way back to Arizona from Idaho. I thought it was funny because the park now equips popular picture areas with camera stands. Now you can make sure everyone in your party is in the picture and not have to rely on other people being there at the same time to take the picture for you.
 
10. Summer Days
This past summer we took a trip to visit our families in Idaho and Arizona. While in Idaho, Pops took us all fishing in a little lake nearby. 

11. A Day in My Life
Some people are born to do amazing things, my amazing thing is being a mom and my big accomplishments are my children. No matter how much laundry I have to fold, how many dishes I have to wash or how many times I step on a toy lying around, I love being a mom and I know I'm good at it.

12. All Smiles

These two kids are twins, born two years apart. They are extremely close...nearly inseparable, they defend each other no matter what and they drive each other crazy!


13. Autumn Harvest
We celebrate two Thanksgivings...Canada Thanksgiving in October and US Thanksgiving in Nov, but we all know which one is the real holiday.

14. Family or Home

 We also had an opportunity to fly out my in-laws for the Christmas holidays. I know I have written this before, but the holidays are always the hardest for me. I miss family and friends so much. It was a little better this year, having some family here to celebrate with us.

15. Celebrate

Since we were in Arizona over the 4th of July, we got to celebrate the Independence Day. I sure missed seeing fireworks on the 4th the previous year.

16. Let's Do it Again

One of the coolest things we did this fall was go on a ghost tour of a section of downtown Montreal. It was so awesome to learn about historical events of Montreal. I will definitely be doing another ghost tour next Halloween. 

17. I Miss You
I know I've said this before, but moving to Montreal and away from all my family and friends was one of the hardest things I've done. The hardest part is not being able to drive to visit my parents each weekend. Or hang out when my brother comes for spring training. Holidays and celebrating our kids birthday's away from everyone is really tough. This move, though, is also one of the most amazing things I've ever done.

18. Beautiful
Montreal is truly a beautiful city! This is a picture of the inside of the Notre-Dame Basilica in downtown Montreal. We are starting our 3rd year living in Montreal and I feel like I've so much more beauty yet to discover here. 

19. Dress Up
I had a hard time choosing a picture for this one. I was on a roll making Eliana dresses and outfits this year. This is what Eliana wore for Halloween, she went as Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. 

20. Macro
This is the closest I have to a macro photo. The ladybugs were out of control this summer. The kids loved it.

21. Holidays
The kids standing in front of our very large tree. We haven't had a vehicle in two years now. Most times, I don't miss it. However, when it comes to taking home a tree with no vehicle, that is a different story. Nolan and I carried this beast for nearly a mile while it was snowing. Come to realize the tree was too large for our place and too large for the tree stand. We made it work, but we will be a little more cautious next year.

22. My Favorite
The Legend of Zelda for the NES is my all time favorite video game. I've been really obsessed with it this past year and couldn't resist the opportunity to make Eliana a Link inspired dress. I'm actually getting ready to design our master bedroom in the theme of Zelda.

23. Don't Ever Change



24. Just because...so there!

Happy New Year!

25. Hopes and Dreams
 To start off 2014 was a tough year, emotionally and financially. We struggled hard, financially, most of the year and spent the year working through those struggles. When we moved up to Canada, 3 other families and 2 single individuals arrived around the same time. Altogether we were a group of 16. Our first year we spent a lot of time together. We helped and supported each other, spent holidays, births and birthdays together. Last year two families left Canada, and as I'm typing this sentence the last of the 3 families is flying back to Arizona. After today there are only 7 of us from our tight knit little group, and our family makes up 5 of them. What an incredible 2 years we all had, so many amazing memories. I'm very sad that it ended so soon for many. I'm also sad that our only support system, our little tight knit group, is nearly gone. I know we will be okay, but they all felt like family and it's hard not to feel that way when you go through such a life changing event like we all did together.

We DO have a lot to look forward to this year. We are getting ready to start the Canadian permanent resident process.  I'm catching on to this French language and thanks to an amazing gift by a good friend we now have Rosetta Stone for French. Vanessa is making great strides in school and soon Parker will be starting kindergarten. I think my only other goal...and I think I have to let my hubby in on this one...is to buy a car.

I'm so grateful that Ashley Sisk at Ramblings and Photos hosts this each year. Check out all the other MDR2014 posts. Click on the picture below to go to her site. 

Memories, Dreams and Reflections 2013

Here we go again! This is my third year participating in this photo series. I love doing this, love reminiscing on the past year. If you would like to visit my post from last year, click here. 

1. Me!

 

 This picture was taken while we were living in temp housing when we first came to Montreal. 

2. I Love You

  

It's these moments that I love. Eliana snuggling against my chest or snow ball fights with the kids. Long conversations with my oldest daughter or moments when we can't stop laughing at the oddest things. Pillow fights with Parker. Walks to the store with my hubby. Sometimes, it feels like time stops for a little while during these times. These wonderful moments, make all the rough ones manageable. Moments I wouldn't trade anything in the world for.

3. Still Laughing…

 

Another series of pictures taken in temp housing. I couldn't resist making Eliana into a meme. 

4. Winter Wonderland

 

It has taken a bit of getting used to dealing with cold weather and snow. This is a picture of Parker all bundled up and ready to play in the first snow of the season.

5. Birthday

Eliana's first year photo shoot. I wanted to take these photos at this park about a mile from our house. It has some gorgeous trees and so many beautiful backdrops for pictures. We haven't owned a vehicle since our move, so you could imagine how "fun" it was hauling all the stuff I used in this photo to this location.

6. Friends

This picture was taken at Parker and Evan's Willy Wonka themed party. Our move to Montreal brought us closer to families and friends that were also relocated from Arizona to Montreal. I also love that we were able to Skype with family and friends that couldn't be at the party in person. 

  
7. I Was Inspired… 

 

 I really wanted to do something cute for Father's Day this year so we made a cute little video for daddy.

8. Spring Fever

 

The minute the snow cleared, and the temperatures warmed up, everything that had grass was also filled with dandelions. Couldn't imagine having to deal with them if we had a yard, but Parker enjoyed playing in and with them.

9. Travel or Vacation

 

 When my parents and brother came into visit us in Montreal, we took a road trip to Toronto. We packed a lot of activities into a couple of days including taking Eliana and Parker to their first baseball game. 

10. Summer Days

 Unintentionally, when we chose our place, we moved into a neighborhood with a public pool and a big park only a block away. We didn't take advantage of the pool as much as we should have this past summer, but now that we have our free passes we will be going there a lot more this next summer.

 
11. A Day In My Life

With three kids, someone always needs something.  I know all three kiddos love each other so much, but there is always some sort of sibling drama going on. I wouldn't have it any other way....unless of course all three decided that sibling rivalry is overrated.

12. All Smiles

 

It's a rare moment to have all three kiddos smiling. Takes a lot of patience. I was going through all the pictures and found this picture. I didn't even remember I had this one of the kids.

13. Autumn Harvest

 

Eliana's birthday falls right into the most colorful time of the year. It was so much fun to take her to the nearby park for her birthday photos. You can see she had a lot of fun playing in the fall leaves.

14. Family or Home

  

15. Celebrate!

 

Happy New Year!

16. Let’s Do It Again…

 

 The kids and I will be doing the, Color Me Rad, this next year.  For the most part, we had a blast! I'm excited to participate in the race again.

17. I Miss You

 

  This is the first year we didn't celebrate birthdays and many holidays together. Missing my parents and brother since our move to Montreal.

18. Beautiful

 

I'm nearly certain I've posted a picture of Vanessa for this prompt the last couple of years. She is beautiful in so many ways.

19. Dress Up

 

We all dressed up in steam punk versions of Alice in Wonderland characters. I'm still hoping to take a better picture of us all in our costumes, but for now this one will have to do. 

20. Macro

 

 One of my biggest fears are spiders. We had some deadly spiders in Arizona, but you would never see them. Here...they are everywhere. Trying to have a nice picnic at the park? Nope, giant spiders live in the grass here. Anyhow, I saw this web and it was the perfect web!

 

 21. Holidays

Christmas morning!

 22. My Favorite – share your favorite picture or memory from 2012.

 

This was taken a couple days after Christmas. Eliana was being so silly.

 23. Don’t Ever Change

 

 I hope my kiddos will always be close, always love each other.

24. Just Because…So There!

 

And we can't forget Picasso! He's been through a lot. Just a week before our big move, he was mauled by two dogs. We nearly lost him.  Picasso is such an awesome cat. He's been a very important part of our crazy, wonderful story too. 

25. Hopes and Dreams

 

We sat down and made a few resolutions this year. My main resolution is to learn the French language to a point I can carry on a conversation with someone. Another resolution is that my hubby and I will be dedicating one afternoon/evening a month for a date night. We've discussed starting the process to becoming permanent residents and citizens of Canada and possibly buying a home here in Montreal after Vanessa graduates from school.

2013 was an amazing year and my goal is to make 2014 even better!