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.