Coming to the end...

We are nearing the end of our long 3 weeks without Daddy, hence no blog updates. I just happened to have a few minutes while Ariel was at dance class to update on things here with us.

Its been a long haul, in the end I think we did really well, but I can say I am uber tired, and I am looking forward to that second set of hands coming home. Thankful for all the help we got from everyone while he was gone, from meals to babysitting, it really was awesome.

The hardest thing was getting to church with the kids and doing my job as Children's director, I found that probably the hardest. Trying to talk to people while keeping an eye on my own kids proved challenging. Ha! I love that they are so comfortable at church but with so many new people coming its hard to find them in the crowds when they take off with friends.

We ended up missing church this week as Ariel had her first dance competition at Peak Invitational!!! All the hard work has brought us to this point and it was very exciting. Overall they danced well as a group, a few mistakes but got 3rd place in their section. The professional photographer at the event got this great shot of Ariel as she is the first one out on stage before her group joins her. Love it!!!

She loves her little metal and is eager to hang it up some place special. Excuse the bad phone photos.

We have 2 more competitions to attend, but they are the first week of May so a bit of time to practice. Talk of the recital is already starting too, she is a bluebell for her ballet this year and her other jazz class is doing 'You Don't Know Your Beautiful'.

Work has been BUSY. I have had a huge surge in orders this month, nearly triple what I did last year during this month. Its been an adjustment with my time but I am thankful for the work, and so are my taxes, we got the 'lovely' surprise we had to pay in both countries this year. Basically there is a parallel tax system in place, which usually keeps us safe, but since we used some RRSPs for our down payment and those aren't taxable here, they are in the USA. Boo! Wasn't a terrible amount, but it still sucked. Thankful for extra work that is covering what we didn't expect, so God is good!

Xander has been having a rough time with Ken gone. The first few days were lots of 'when is Daddy coming home?' Then he didn't want to sleep in his bed the first few nights either and was very clingy, all very normal but made things a tad tricky when trying to get things done. Thankfully the days have flown by and he is excited to see Daddy on Thursday!

Ariel's long awaited 'report card' gift arrived last week. She had picked out the AG pet bath set, and both kids have had hours of entertainment washing the dogs.

Last Friday I got to go to the Marianas Trench concert with my friend Brenda. I really was sad Ken missed it but it was a wonderful night out and a great break for me! Brenda treated me to dinner since I offered the ticket to her for free. We got to catch up on Imagine That business then went to the concert at the Pacific Coliseum. It was an awesome show, and I taped a bit of Ariel's favorite song for her...



...and got her a shirt...er night gown haha.

Well, its time to get Ariel, so I will wrap this up. Thinking of those in Boston... sad events, we are praying for you.

Endings and Beginnings

Today was the end of Spring Break... I for one am ready for some normalcy and routine and I think the kids do too. Xander has been talking about his teacher and seeing her so we are more than ready. In the past 48 hours my emotions have been all over the place. On Saturday afternoon we got word from Ken's boss that they wanted him to stay longer in Australia due to the Pixar event being bigger than planned (sold out actually) and they were in need of help. So from what we expected was to be one week away turned into almost 3 weeks. So we had to quickly adjust and figure stuff out. Only a tad stressful, ack!

We drove him to the airport Sunday afternoon and late today we got to talk online. He looked really good for someone who was on a plane over 14 hours.

Sadly Ken will miss the concert we had tickets to, Mariana's Trench. I asked my friend Brenda if she wanted to go with me, and she was like, 'Sure! Who are they?' haha. Ah well, we will have fun... I've emailed various links to videos so she can get more familiar with the music but its a night out so I am sure we will enjoy it regardless.

Today was the 13th year since my mom died. I found myself very numb to it this year. I don't know if that is because Ken left yesterday and I am tired from 2 weeks of spring break craziness or what, but I found myself sitting at her grave with not much to say. We brought her some roses and had a quick photo via the phone.

Easter was amazing this year at church, a real celebration. Pastor Lee had some wonderful visual ideas to make it a real party and when you drop over 200 balloons on people it tends to help.

The blooming cross, I loved the bricks at the base that tied into the story that was read for the kids. 

We had Easter baskets at home for the kids. 

Ariel was excited to receive her first Bible! She is busy reading it and was eager to show it off on Sunday morning.

A few shots for our Easter card, the kids are really looking more grown up these days.. a tad shocking.

Xander has just lost all his chub in the past month, looking more like a little boy. His feet also grew, his toes popped out the front of his sneakers, making us go find a new pair quickly, haha.

Here is the little man in his new shoes with his hair cut, thankful we could get him in before Easter. 

Speaking of Xander, we visited our new dentist and we FINALLY got him to sit in the chair, and even have a full cleaning. It was amazing, and he happily watched tv while holding his new green toothbrush. The new office is great, and the people there were fantastic with the kids... a far cry from where we were at. Enough said!

So the lunches and snacks are packed for both kids to return to school tomorrow. Looking forward to some quiet time to myself... its been awhile.