My darling Lillias with sparkly hair.

Kelly put hair tinsel in my girls hair and it should last a month or so, but I've had to replace a few already with their rowdy life style. It looks really neat in the sun though and they get tons of compliments which of course they love. They're going to send some to their cousins Bailey and Brooklynn. We even put one in Violets hair. She doesn't know because if she did I'm sure she would rip it out.
Speaking of my little Giant Violet, ( that is what we call her due to her giant personality) she is becoming quite a little terror. More so then I remember  any of my previous three children being. When she was still a baby I remember  her crying and throwing her head back as if  to start a tantrum, and thinking this child is going to be a handful.  Well she has proved me right. Not only is she very mischievous,  smearing chocolate syrup all over herself and the floor, 

putting black mascara  all over her face, dumping, no make that throwing her cereal/ jello/ yogurt/ pudding across the table or onto the floor. I can't feed her, she yells and knocks the food out of my hand. She has to do it herself, even the messy stuff. She mostly uses her hands to eat, and squishes it between her fingers and smears it around the table, and when she's finished what is left gets dumped on the floor. This isn't the half of it though. This girl can yell so loud and so long when she doesn't get her way. She hits all of us, she bites, she picks up what is closest to her and throws it. The other day Chris wouldn't let her go outside with the big kids so she got a boot, holding it high above her head and came after him yelling  her head off. I started to laugh, so then she went to throw the boot at me. I know it shouldn't be funny, but sometimes all you can do is laugh. 

Miete and Lilli are in swim lessons on Wednesday and Friday, so I have to bring Leif and Violet along for that adventure. Violet has thrown herself down on the pool deck screaming because I won't let her throw whatever she can get her hands on into the pool. I dread those afternoons. This is a lesson for me. I used to judge those parents with out of control children, and think why do they let them get away with so much. I've learned you pick your battles, especially when in public. I am not a horrible parent either. She has a strong will and wants to do what the big kids are doing. As well she is so quick. I was standing right next to her when she dumped the chocolate syrup, and when her little hand grabbed the mascara out of my make-up bag, but my back was to her. 

 She also terrorizes her siblings. When Leif is playing quietly with his trains and trucks she sneaks up and knocks them all over or grabs them and runs. The other day while sitting next to Leif on the couch she bit a mouthful of his hair out just because she felt like it. She hits Lilli a lot especially when Lilli tries to mother her a bit to much and Violet won't have any of it. When I try to make her apologize she snaps "no", and walks away or pushes Lilli away.

Okay she's not all monster though. She goes down for naps and to bed really easy. She seems to like sleeping and look forward to it. She gets that from me. She loves to kiss and to cuddle and she loves her baby dolls. She carries dolls around wrapped in blankets with my purse over her arm, and she sings to them and feeds them. She's also the best little dancer of any kid her size, and she'll dance to anything, even the dryer. She does love to wrestle with her siblings and daddy, and once when Lilli was crying Violet got a wash cloth and squatted down by Lilli and tried to wipe her tears. That was so sweet. We hang onto those precious moments. We do love her and are entertained by her, but she is hard to contain. She really is a giant in a little body.

I made these flowers yesterday. The two small ones were simple and are to be put on hairbands or hair clips for my girls. The yellow Dahlia took me hours to make and was very tedious. I don't know if I'd do it again. It's to be a broach for my mom. 

This is the wreathe I made my mom for mothers day.

 I don't have to much to say, I mostly wanted to post pictures of my adorable kiddies. I'll say, since it is Mothers Day that I have the best mother in the world. I'm not even exaggerating. Anyone who knows my mother would agree. She would do anything for anybody and she does. Everybody that knows her loves her, most of all her children. I feel so lucky to have her, and I truly aspire to be more like her. She is such an inspiration for service and charity. I always wish I could adequately express my appreciation for all she does, but she's so humble she just laughs compliments off. I want to be a mom like my mom because she is the mother of all mothers in her quiet, modest way. I wish I had a picture with her to post, but I have very few. I'll have to make it a point to take some.

 So what I love about being a mother is, well there is just to much. We laugh, and we play and we create beautiful memories together. We have a lot of fun. I sometimes try to imagine what my life would be like without my little monkeys, and it would be lonely and boring. I am a lucky woman, and so grateful for these four little darlings. Well sometimes they're darlings, like when their sleeping. They all have their challenges, but we love them for the creative, spunky, often emotional, and sensitive little people that they are.

Aren't they beautiful. I'm biased, I know, but really!

Leif in his element at Maple Ridge park. Nothing makes him happier then being outside. Well, trains make him happier then anything.

Violet also loves being outdoors. Today she lost a boot and didn't even seem to notice despite the wet, muddy ground. Shortly after this she was digging in a mud hole and flinging dirt on me as I tried to get more pictures of her.

I LOVE MY BABIES!

Cutie pants enjoying the spoils of our Easter egg hunt. She couldn't stop shoveling the chocolate in, but isn't she darling!

Violet discovered ladybugs recently. She's 

fascinated with them, and is so gentle and careful. She gets so excited just to watch them crawl all over her. She's enthralled with most bugs actually. The other day she was following a fat, lazy bee around the yard, trying to catch it. I was relieved that it got away.

So I have recently started making these wreathes. My sister in law, Holly inspired me and then I just found all sorts of great ideas on Etsy and other sites. I made this one for my sister Jacquie for her birthday and I have a cute one on my own front door. Sometimes I use colored yarn and sometimes ribbon. It's a great mothers day idea. I will be making one for my mom. I also make little hair clips and clothing pins with the felt flowers as well. I've really fallen in love with felt. I Think I'll make myself a wreath for each season.

I also found several owl stuffie patterns online and combined them to make my kids these adorable owls for Easter. Took me two strait days of sewing, but they turned out okay and my mistakes aren't noticeable to my kids.

I would love to be able to sell crafts on Etsy but there is so much on that site already I don't know if it would be worth it. Maybe if I advertised being from Canada I could get the Canadian customers who don't want to pay huge shipping fees. I don't know when I'd find the time, between homeschool, pre school, swim classes and all the other classes my girls attend through Summit. Well summer is soon so we shall see.

I'm also trying to find more cleaning jobs if anyone local knows of any hook ups. I have several semi regular jobs that I work around preschool, homeschool and finding a sitter, but what I'd really like is an evening office cleaning job a couple of times a week. If you know of anyone and you live in my general area send them my way.

Other news, but not really, is I have been training for The Rock N' Roll half marathon that is in Seattle at the end of June. Last year I ran my first half and I'd really like to improve my time by 5 minutes this year. I don't know if that is a realistic goal. I feel like I've hit my prime in the short 5 years that I've been running and it's all down hill from here. If only I had started running in my twenties instead of waiting until I was thirty. I am not sure if it is possible for me to improve my pace by much if any. Worse, would be to come in a slower time. Oh, that would be just awful, and the thought of it torments me.
 For my birthday Chris got me one of those Nike things you attach to your shoe, along with a wrist band. It doesn't have a GPS on it but once I can get it set to my pace it will tell me my distance, calories and pace per run. It's been kind of hard getting it regulated. This past Saturday I had to run 12km. I was excited because I had new shoes and I was eager to try them out. Well it turned out to be the longest, slowest run. I had to keep adding to my route to make up my goal distance and it seemed like my pace was dreadfully slow. By 7km I had bleeding blisters on the back of my left heel, and I was feeling exhausted. I really had to push myself to pick up my pace and complete the 12km distance. When I finished I felt so discouraged and depressed that it had taken me so long to run 12km. I decided to map my run online just to be sure I was as slow as I thought I was. Well to my delight it turns out I had actually ran 14km, which is why I must have felt so exhausted. So I have since reprogramed my Nike thing, and am feeling so happy that I am not as slow as I thought I was. There is hope for a new PR after all.