Ring...ing in the New Year.



$15.00 total

The new year has been full of fun already!  A lovely family friend has been in town keeping us very busy!  We were lucky to hit several antique stores scoring these antique/costume jewelry rings for $3 dollars each.  My friend is taking home the two on the left and the one on the far right!  This is one more bonus to living in New England - there are vintage and antique stores everywhere!  So, remember, when you come and visit - we'll hit as many as we can!



Mr. C has the 2, Nini has the 0, I have the 1, and Cici has the 2 =2012



We've been enjoying a new season with our girls.  Suddenly, they have become very much like "little people" and "little friends".  They love hanging out with us and the conversations we've had have been so enjoyable!  We stayed up until midnight and took this cool photo right on a self-timer.  We rang in the first second of the new year with a few harmless (but loud) fireworks!  The boys were happily dreaming even with our crazy noise!



First second of 2012!

Happy 2012!



Exhaustion.

I am exhausted! This photo describes how the past month has felt for all of us. This photo was taken upon our arrival at our hotel here in New England. They were so tired they fell asleep on their Happy Meal bags -poor things! I have been unable to post or do much of anything other than unpacking, getting the girls set in their new environment, and taking care of Mr. T and Hawk. We are loving our new digs and can't wait to share photos soon. Here are a few photos that were taken during our move...

This scene is one of many parks located in Montreal. It snowed the days before our move. I was inspired to take this photo so that I could remind myself that snow can be beautiful even if it lasts until April in Montreal.

This photo was to be our "goodbye" photo. The one you take as you lock the doors of your old home behind you and travel to your new home. Unfortunately, I mistakenly left the keys in our mini-van and one of my daughters, upon doing an errand for me, locked the doors. We quickly took everyone back inside and called a locksmith. We had to wait another hour before leaving.

This photo represents the future, as our girls walk into their new home for the first time. I will post more photos soon! Thanks for everyone who has stuck with me during my absence. (Marie this post is dedicated to you!) Also, thank you to my MIL who has been helping me with the boys while I tackled our unpacking!

On our way...

This is the week where we say goodbye to Montreal and move to our new life in New England.

Happy heart blog will post again with our moving adventure once we are settled in our new home!

Wish us luck!

Loving our new home!

Happy Valentine's Day from a Happy Heart Blog! In amongst babies and feedings, I had a few minutes last night to arrange our family dining table with some fun Valentine's Day decor. The lights we've enjoyed since Christmas. When January turned to February, I added the clothesline hearts and berries to the lights for a fun Valentine mantle decoration. Plus, it was easier to keep it up until we were going to move!

Some good news has come our way and we have found a home. We didn't have to go far, in fact, we didn't go anywhere at all. When the yellow colonial home came appraised for way under it's value, we switched banks and hired a local appraiser. He took in the value of the area, the antique qualities, the barn that is on the property - and it appraised this week for a value worth the owners selling. We close on the home next week and will be moving by the end of this month, if all goes well.

Craig has been driving back and forth the long five hour drive to be with us every weekend. It's been rough, but fortunately the end is near and we will soon be reunited. My MIL has been staying with us and helping. Saturday night, she offered to watched all four kids and we took her up on the offer. We headed to a see Valentine's Day and then went to eat at our favorite steak place J'entre Cote St. Jean.

Before our date, Craig provided our family with is own GQ model shoot! This is one of many photos! We had a great time and appreciate the quality time together.

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Driving for a home.

Pulling this cart out of the Residence Inn in Mass. this weekend was difficult with the cold wind and bumps in the cement making the bags and things fall off onto the ground. It was a challenge but one well worth the effort...effort that I hope will lead to a home for this Happy Heart family. Once again, I find myself and my four littles in our mini-van heading south across the Canadian border to Massachusetts. It was our fourth journey down to our new home location, but this time, we didn't have a home we could call our own. Our beautiful colonial New England home did not appraise for a value worth the home owner's time and have since refused to sell it. We were devastated, but hopeful this weekend that something would come about - after all, this must be happening for a reason ( even if to show us patience!)




This is what our family looks like to others. You can imagine the comments and questions we receive! What you don't see are the bottles, diapers, clothes, toys and such that are attached to that stroller - it's quite the set-up! I wised up this time and had room to fit my MIL who stayed at the hotel with all four kids for most of Saturday while we madly went looking for another home. This time the homes were all located in Massachusetts. We were hopeful for the first home we looked at, but it wasn't what we thought it was going to be - it never is. I was about ready to give up when we were presented with three beautiful homes right in a row. We put an offer down on one of them, but the owners came back and declined it. We are still hopeful that a second appraisal on the yellow home by a local company will raise the value and take into consideration the antique and New England value and charm. Wish us luck!

Static Beauties.

Trying to get ready

It's 12:45 p.m. on Saturday and I am on the telephone with the photo studio letting them know we will be late for our 12:45 p.m. photography appointment. My goal of this photo shoot was to capture our family at our best, right now, while we are living in Montreal. But at 11:30 a.m., all four children had been dressed-up, hair quaffed, and outfits straigtened but something is missing. There is still one more person that needs to style her hair and get some make-up. The person, of course, is me. I decide that I'll do it on the way, but realize "on the way" is only 3 minutes or less! I mutter to myself that I need to plan ahead more or start earlier, but realize - I did start earlier. You can't plan baby spit-ups, crying spells, and diaper changes - it just doesn't work that way.

When we roll in 20 minutes late, Mr. T just left us an orderous present and The Hawk, fittingly, is screming. I push a pacifier in his mouth and sigh at changing Mr. T. That's when I heard, "it doesn't matter you won't see it," from Craig. Surprisinly I agree, and off we go to fit in as many photos as we can in 15 minutes. All told, it went well. Mr. T was asleep for most of it and The Hawk was wide-eyed and interested. No babies cried, no little girls fought, and I managed to squeeze my make-up and hair in before our arrival.

Static Beauty...

I have now been sitting too long to stay completely awake. I am nodding off while typing -apparently you can do this! The girl's hair has been a challenge during Montreal's bitter cold, dry winter's. This is what kept happening everytime I tried to comb their hair. My hair has a tendancy to fly away too, but these little beauties take the prize.

Before the photo shoot, the girls and I took a before photo to document what we look like before hair and my make-up...


Here we are, all spruced up and ready for the hot lights. We arrived at the studio with only 15 minutes left in our time slot. We threw off our boots, took the babies out of their car seats, and rushed back to our shoot. I will be doing this all over again on Wednesday since we only had time to shoot our family photos and missed the babies and the girls.

A snip, snip and the Olympic Torch

Waiting for the Olympic Torch

Craig has been out of town all week (he can sure pick them!) But fortunately, I haven't been alone with my mother-in-law picking up the girls from school and helping out if I need to do an errand. The heater in our van picked Craig's departure week to go out, so I have been reluctant to make any trips in fear of freezing the little sprouts! He also was out-of-town for the boys circumcisions. They do not do this procedure in the hospital, it takes an out-patient procedure at the children's hospital or speciality clinic. I took the boys down on Tuesday with my friend Jo on hand to help if needed. I am so thankful she had the the idea to volunteer, because I would have most likely done it on my own and been sorry I did. I requested that I not be in the room when they "snip..snip", but yea, I was forced to stay in the room - lucky me. They didn't sleep much Tuesday or Wednesday, but another friend came by this week and stayed while I took a three hour nap. That was a complete godsend, as it was more sleep than I had all week!

Thursday, my MIL, watched the boys while I walked to the girl's school to meet them for a special event. The Olympic torch was coming through our village in Montreal. They released the children early so that they could, with their parents, go and see it. We waited for about an hour in the cold before the parade and torch crossed our path. It was a lot of fun to be out with the girls - they were extremely excited to have me to themselves!

Ms. Nini and Cici were in good spirits, despite the cold.

Me and the girls.

Coca Cola rally before the Torch.

Here it comes!

How is everyone?
Are you ready for Christmas?

The Value of a Penny.

I arrived at the hospital's antenatal unit before they had opened the doors. Like myself, there were several pregnant women waiting for their diabetic check-up. Several minutes after the opening time, a staff member finally arrived. This clinic is notorious for long waits and long lines, so when the doors opened we all waddled as quickly as we could to be the first in line. I pulled out my medical card on the way to have it handy and accidentally dropped a penny on the ground. My mom started to turn and pick it up, but I said quickly to leave it and that it was just a penny and getting in line was more important.

After returning from having my blood drawn, I came and sat down for my long wait. My mom said that a lot of the staff had been delayed because of a major accident. One of the nurses struck up a conversation with my mom about having a particularly bad morning. However, she said that it was about to change because she had just found a US lucky penny on the ground when she walked in the door! She was overly excited and confident that the penny was a sign of better things to come. This story made me smile! I guess you never know how even the smallest event will change you or somebody that follows in your path. Perhaps a penny still has value.

P.S. The winner of my favorite things giveaway is.....Andrea! Congrats!

I've been Ponkified.

What is a Ponki? This is what I asked myself when a friend I hadn't seen for several months came to visit me last week. There was no denying the fantastic smell that made it's way out of the small box she handed me and I was confident that whatever Ponki was - I would like them! Ponki's are Polish donuts, filled with cremes, chocolates, and/or fruit fillings. They are also known as a Berliner and also better than any donut I've ever had. The bakery is called La pâtisserie-boulangerie Wawel and there are several locations throughout the city.

The wonderful friend who took the time to bring it by was Rosemary. She is originally from Switerzerland, but has been here for over 30 years. We met when we first arrived and it has been wonderful to get to know her better. She spent several hours at my home and shared with me her portfolio of abstract paintings. I am grateful for her service, as I know she rarely gets time off work. Thank you Rosemary!

Ever heard of a Berliner or a Ponki?

"Missed" so to speak.

I had been on my own for several nights because my husband had to fly to Utah for a couple of days. The girls were at a friends house spending the night and playing with her three kids during the day. It was lonely, but with my survival items of books, embroidery, computer, TV, and telephone- I kept myself busy. I looked forward to the girl's noises through house, but also wondering what kind of help could I really give them during this period of my full time bed rest. We snuggled into my bed that night and turned on a couple of shows that I had taped for them. One of them was the children's show Arthur. One of the children had made a concerted effort to be "kind" and was feeling that no one was appreciating them.

Soon after a Christmas Carol like character appeared to him to show him what it would be like if he wasn't around to have done those good deeds. He quickly realized that no one would have done them. He commented that it would have been nice if someone had thanked him. And his wise mentor explained that there is one person he knows that works all day and never really gets a thank you. They appeared in his house to show his mother working over the dishes by herself. The next vision was of her making the choice to quit and do nothing. With dishes piled to the sink and the house a mess, the mother goes off on vacation leaving the boy by himself.

At that moment, I had a little self-realizing ephiphany. I went through my head the people who have helped me during this process and counted at least nine. Nine people to help take up the slack for one mom bound to the couch and her bed. Seeing that I was "missed" so to speak, actually helped me relax and settle my thoughts of being an inadequate mother during this time.

I am so grateful for my friend Kathy who miraculously went through bed rest with her twins and keeps telling me this is her way of "giving back". She has been such a wonderful help even when Craig is home by taking the girls during the day during the summer. Monday night when they brought the girls home, her family didn't just drop them off, they brought a family home evening lesson with them a game for the kids to play, and dessert. Afterwards, Kathy and her husband both stayed and did the dishes for me. I am completely overwhelmed with support and am looking forward to the day I can give back. I go in for another doctor's appointment today and will keep the blog updated with any new information!

Have you had any mommy epiphany moments?

Any bets?

20 weeks

Thursday is the BIG day! I will find out what I am having - boys, girls, one of each? My guess is one of each - what do you think?

My sister over at ahalffulllife has been visiting us for over a week now. We introduced them to Acorn Cottage and the joy of smores and hot dogs over the fire. We've been busy, which means blogging has been hard to get too. Take care and I will keep you posted on facebook the day I found out and later in the week on my blog!

10 things of consequence.

Bird Inside house

#1. The bird in the above photo, is it outside or inside? This little guy flew through the chimney and found it's way into these fake trees in our window. It felt quite at home, with no plans on leaving. We opened all the windows and doors and it finally flew out with a little bit of help from Craig!

#2. Today (Sunday) was a huge day for us at church! When we moved to Montreal we attended a branch; which a year later merged into Montreal Ward and a separate singles ward. Today, we saw another amazing testimony of growth in the Mormon church in this area. We are a huge ward spread across the entire city of Montreal center towards east island Montreal. Some of the people on the outskirts of our ward boundary traveled two hours by bus just to get here - quite the feat when you are bundling large families up to spend four hours every Sunday in the cold - plus the three hour block. Now, these people on the east side of the island have their own branch!

Last year, the Bishop of our ward began praying and fasting that our ward would grow large enough to allow our ward to be split. In a matter of six months, 40 new people moved in the ward and today marked the 21st new member baptism in 12 months. It was absolutely amazing to see the growth of the ward in such a short time frame. We are happy that travel time will be less for the new branch, but sad to see them go.

Enjoying Natalie's dinner.

#3 I have been so blessed to receive so much service from so many very busy women. You never really understand how "it is" unless you experience what others have gone through. Best rest sucks! But, it's all for a good cause. I had a particularly sluggish nauseating day. It was 5:15 and I was heading downstairs to put something together for dinner. Kristin, another ex-patriot from the states, called and said she had made an extra batch of chili and could she bring some. I have learned not to pause so much when people offer their help, and promptly said - "that would great!" Her chili and a loaf of bread made a great dinner and saved me from my ordering pizza for dinner. That same week, Natalie, brought by dinner to us. We sat down and ate her yummy lasagna for a couple of days - the girls were so infatuated by the taste - they kept saying " this is the best dinner ever!" What sweeties! Natalie thank you! One thing that I don't get much of, which one friend has been so awesome to give so much of is - time. She comes over several times a week and chats with me. Wow, another something I've learned I should always give freely - time to others.

Monday night, sans dad, self portrait

#4 Craig had an overnight business trip Monday to late Tuesday night. We enjoyed being cozy and watching a movie I had taped from TIVO called the Babysitter's Club. They have been so awesome, I am just more and more in love with these girls. Which is hard, because I already think they are great! We had a lot of fun trying to get Nini in this photo. We finally got one, but I had to show this one, since it took so many shots to get her to get herself in the photo!

Rolfe and the girls.

#5. "They are mere shadows of themselves..." said my husband this weekend. Rolfe, one of our little dogs, was diagnosed with diabetes two months ago. He's 10 and has completely lost his eyesight. You won't find a sweeter animal. Our other dog, Inga, is 15 and both dogs will not likely make it through the summer. We've been trying to prepare the girls for their inevitable departure from our family to doggy heaven. My emotions are much worse with this pregnancy, so I know that it's going to be very difficult to let them go. Inga we got on our 1 year wedding anniversary - they both we'll be missed.

#6. Blog love and goodmail. Claudia and Kim Sue have been so gracious in sending goodmail up my way in Montreal. Everytime I see one of these sweet envelopes - I can't help but walk a little quicker to the mail box! Also, I have had a chance to finally get some of my own goodmail out - watch for it!

#7. Check out this link for some of the cutest blog layouts I've seen in a long time. They are easy to use and free. She does accept donations, it's worth it!

#8. Perhaps it's this pregnancy, but I can't seem to take a "cute" picture for the life of me. My self-portraits have become ridiculous. I will show my new hair cut, when I can capture a good photo. Picky, I know, but a girls got to look good - right?


#9. Is probably the happiest for me. After over 175 shots - I am now done taking injections. My butt is, shall we say, utterly and completely sore - healing time will probably take three years! Although it was hard, I had an end, and it was completely worth it.

#10. I've finished the biggest book I've ever read - Anna Karenina! It took a month, but I did it! I'm now on to the Book Thief, The Shack, and many others that I've put off until I could get through Anna. I'm sticking to a few smaller books - for now!

A View from the sofa.

I see my new tummy when working on the computer!

My dear friends, I have been on bed rest for--I can't remember how long! My life has become very narrow in respect to that which I used to do and accomplish. I was fortunate to have my mom here for two glorious weeks while I was on full-time bed rest. She is now back at her home, but with plans to return when needed or on their originally scheduled visit in August.

Grandma's last night.

Two weeks ago I was able to see my obstetrician for the first time. She is a specialist in high risk multiple pregnancies. The week I saw her she had spent the last two weeks delivering three sets of triplets who all made it to their 33rd week-which is really spectacular for these types of multiple births. She was confident that I shouldn't be doing anything strenuous - even to the point of telling me that I can't bend over! Hello?! She said that I couldn't stand for more than an hour or sit for more than an hour, and that I should be in bed or on the couch with my feet up.

More tummy.

When we first began our fertility treatment, the only "high risk" surety was my age. However, now that I am pregnant, there seems to be more things that take me into high risk. My cervix is just shy of 4cm (4-5 cm's is a healthy cervix) and I have been wobbling around with what they think is a ligament pain in my right lower hip. Despite these things, my last ultrasound was yesterday which showed the babies healthy and about 4 inches long! (Also there was some indication - we think - of telling the sex of one of the babies! No telling yet though!)

Sofa life is good though. I've been reading a lot and am 200 pages to the end of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and have four other books ready in waiting. I just won a huge ebay maternity wardrobe online, and believe it or not am on chapter two of writing my illusive book. The girls get to take lots of bike rides with Craig and are helping out a lot more than would normally be expected of them. Things have to get done though - despite my inability to do really anything! I have someone clean once a week and have received help from friends and church members in keeping our home going. Not to mention Craig has been on kitchen duty, laundry, and the list goes on. I am so thankful to have such an awesome family!

Emails, phone calls, and general ideas on bed rest are all appreciated!
I'll post my new haircut and goodmail letters next time!

Hamming-it up and blog giveaway.

Guess what we did last weekend at Acorn Cottage? Can you guess? That's right! Acorn Cottage is finally equipped with a hammock and those 20 little toes you see in the photo enjoyed every moment of our 70 degree weather weekend - in that hammock!

Where have I been? I've gone from posting and commenting everyday to barely getting one in a week! I've decided that it's just been too long and I need to have a blog giveaway. I missed my two year blogaversary in February - so this is a perfect time to have a little contest! I have two motives for this giveaway: 1 - saying I'm here! and 2: to introduce to you my new roadtrip blog called Hit the Road Jill. I have been excited about starting this for at least a year! It's a blog about mom's and traveling. I would for you to check it out and add to your blog's you surf!

Click here for my new blog Hit the Road Jill!

Here's how to enter:

My blog giveaway will be all about Montreal. We moved here almost three years ago as American's on expatriot status. My prize, if you win, will be an assortment of hand-picked items that Montreal or Quebec is famous for or produces. Think Syrup, Hockey etc...! Here's how you can play the game and win!

Answer any one of the following questions in the blog comment section and you will be entered once, answer any two questions - you'll be entered twice and so on. Tell you friends, share your answers, look-up your answers - just spread the word and make your answers! Also, check out my new roadtrip blog at Hit the Road Jill, make a comment and I will enter you one more time into my Montreal blog giveaway! Here are you winning questions

1. What main river surrounds the city of Montreal making it an actual Island?
2. What is the first language of Quebec?
3. What is Montreal's sister city?
4. Name at least one major University within the city of Montreal?
5. What American city purchased the Montreal's only baseball team, the Montreal Expos? And what are they called now?
6. Name the two major bridges that lead into the city of Montreal (hint there is more than two, but these are the biggies)
7. Quebec is the world's largest producer of this tasty, sticky substance?
8. Montreal is the city of churches, which one share it's name with one found in Paris?
9. What is Poutine?

Have fun, enter as many as you can,

and add an extra entry for telling me

what is your city famous for?

Contest ends Saturday, 12:00 a.m. EST

Missed Moments.

Botanical Gardens April 2008

I have been having my own serious case of blogger-i-tis; perhaps it's that I have been feeling under the weather, or that my whole family just got the case of the sickies. Here is a huge effort to mark those things that I missed:

1. Nini is now toothless! She lost her 2nd front tooth three weeks ago when she fell outside. It was a good thing, as it was quite the ordeal getting that first front tooth out. She is absolutely a cutie with her sweet little voice talking through those two missing teeth!

2. Culture night in the Montreal Ward was a fantastic success! Our turn-out at enrichment activities has been truly pathetic. We needed a fun way to bring all our sister's together for our first large enrichment activity this year. Montreal Ward is packed with culture's from all over the world, including the Philippines, Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, France, Hungry, Switzerland, Mexico, Italy, the states, and the rest of Canada. I had everyone make something from their home country, and if they wanted, they could bring something to display that represented the country they left behind. We also had an impromptu hula dance from our Young Women! It was simply fantastic!

3. The girls have been more fascinated by the whole self portrait idea. I'm not sure what fascinates me about this photo - but I just love it! The look on Cici's face and the few features of mine and Nini's included in the photo make it a really sweet photo.

3. We finally made it to Montreal's Botanical Gardens. All month long they were having a huge butterfly exhibit. It was so amazing. You walked into a large tented room fit with flowers and plants and tons of butterflies! I had one land on my pants, others had them on their skin. We also walked through the various other parts of the gardens - all on our yearly pass!

4. Easter wasn't as planned as I had originally intended. Life has been busy and I just haven't gotten things together as well this year. The girls were gorgeous in their orange dresses and sweaters and as cute as ever searching for their eggs. I found these cute Easter crackers at Loblaws for $9.99. We shared them with our home teaching family!

5. I have loved walking around our cabin when we spend a weekend away taking photos of any birds or animals that stay long enough in one area for me to take a photo of. I was completely stealth with this photo, creeping in slowly and taking a photo of this tiny woodpecker. Thank heavens for zoom lenses!

5. We had fun again this year helping our cousin with his Flat Stanley photos. Montreal is famous for a couple of things, one being that it is a city of steeples. There are churches like this everywhere throughout the city, so we had to take a photo of this one and just to the left we took a photo in front of our church too.

6. Nini and Cici are now riding training wheel free! They practiced several times this week with Craig right behind them. Then, boom - off they go on their own!

How are you?