The Day Has Come...

... to send off my Canadian Citizenship application!

YAY!! Woohoo! Clapping! Cheering! Dancing... it's a happy day!

I've had my permanent residency for a number of years already, but had to be physically IN CANADA for 1095 days BEFORE I could apply to become a citizen. Every single day that we traveled outside of the country (since 2006) had to be documented, and those days were deducted from my total. I tell ya... I've realized that we sure do travel a lot! It's taken a tad longer to reach that number than I originally thought it would!

Finally I've met the requirements, filled out the application, copied all the documents they want to see, had my immigration pics taken, paid the price tag, and she's off!!!

I will soon be learning lots about Canada/Canadian History in preparation for my citizenship exam, and HOPE to be "official" in a little over a year. Ohhh.... what a breath of fresh air that will be!!!!

Whelp... I'm off to go practice "Oh Canada..."  : ) If nothing else, I'm going to try dazzling them with my opera voice for the national anthem... or, ummm, MAYBE NOT!

Change Up

At the end of our downstairs hallway, we have an exterior garden door. It's great for letting in natural light and for quick access to the verandah... but during the winter, it simply creates wasted space. And for those of you that have lived in a small house... you know that ANY and all space is put to good use. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!

So far this space has encompassed a good number of things over the winter... it's held an easel, a kids tent, a tunnel, and now... the girls table and chair set.Which has been working nicely! 

Sometimes they have their snack there... but most times it's used for a good girly tea party!

And when Alia's not looking... Larren likes to put on her sister's sweatshirts, steal her sister's chair, and pretend that SHE'S the big sister!!!

Someday you'll have your chance my little sweetie pie... someday!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Larren's at the age of constant discovery... and constant mischief! Which is both a blessing and a curse, I might add! Some days I just smile and shake my head, while other days I yell a little too much and hug much too little... and truthfully, today I'm leaning towards the latter!

She's discovered climbing. Climbing on the coffee table, climbing on the girls' table & chair set, climbing on their little picnic table (that is being kept in the basement!), climbing on the night stand, climbing on... the list just keeps on rolling!

Well... Alia wanted to broaden her sisters horizons, and showed her that it is much more beneficial to climb on something that is near to an object you actually WANT to reach. Novel idea, eh!? :)

It didn't take long for Larren to catch on...

Don't let her innocent little looks fool you...

... she's a girl with a mission!

And that "mission" usually involves quite a destructive wake (for Mommy to clean up) where ever it goes!

A Snapshot of Love

On Saturday I had the opportunity to take a couple's engagement pictures, and I tell ya... what. a. treat. I very much enjoyed hanging out with these two! They made my job way easier than I expected... they were simply SO in love and simply SO into eachother that they hardly even noticed I was there!  :)

Here are a few of the pics...

We had to trek through a good amount of snow to get to the barn where our next set of pics would be... and it made for quite a scene! In hindsight a snowmobile would have been considerably faster, though maybe not as entertaining!!

Thanks again Nico and Cornelia... I hope you had as much fun as I did! 

*** The only other engagement pics I've done was YEARS ago for my brother and sister-in-law! I still smile every time I think of that day! We simply tromped around the country side stopping at any and all locations that looked good! I was preggo with Alia, climbing up on anything that would hold me... and Josh and Erin were just a delight to take pictures of!! (It helps that Erin has helped Josh perfect his "picture smile!!") I absolutely LOVED how the pics turned out... even though I was only using my ole' 35mm SLR to capture the moment back then - no trial and error allowed! At any rate... I've enjoyed the reminiscing!

It's That Time of Year...

...  when we're getting antzy! It's not quite warm enough to be outside too long, and it's not quite cold enough that we want to stay inside! So... I've been having to think of a few more "activities" to keep us all sane each day until Jonathan gets home!

Larren was taking a "not normal" 2nd nap, so Alia and I had a rare chance to "craft" together... just the two of us! And it was lovely!

Scones while we're crafting? Just the cherry on top!

So what are your families doing to keep busy during this winter/spring/winter/spring time of year? Any great new game ideas? What about the whole "layer upon layer under the rain coat and galoshes so we can cruise through the mud puddles" thing? Just remember, spring IS around the corner... spring IS around the corner... and we will be soaking up sun before ya know it! :)