Pink Shirt Day

On Tuesday the boys came home from school saying they needed pink shirts for school the next day. I don't know if they noticed, but I'm the only girl in our family and since I don't wear the colour often, we don't exactly have a lot of pink shirts at our disposal. So John and Caleb left early to Cubs and picked up some hot pink fabric dye. I grabbed an undershirt from each of their dressers and spent a couple of hours dyeing, washing and drying these shirts. I think John didn't understand why I didn't just say "sorry, but I didn't have enough time to get it ready for this year, but maybe next year". The reason is very simple...

I AM ANTI-BULLYING!!!

It's a topic that we're very passionate about in our house. John and I were both bullied throughout school, and I myself was bullied for a few years even after. We know from personal experience the kind of damage that bullying can do to a person. We very clearly point out to our kids when something they have said or done is actually bullying, so that they know not to do it. We have had many talks about what to do if someone is bullying them. Bullying is so unnecessary and so destructive. We, as parents, are trying very hard to do our part to prevent it.

You can learn more about Pink Shirt Day here.

And here are my awesome boys, doing their part to help raise awareness.

What I've Been Making

So here's what I've been making the past month...As usual, I'm working on building up our collection of geeky ornaments. Right now the theme is Tetris. I also made the Mia Maids some crowns that included the Values colours.

Happy 4th Birthday, Brettley

4 years ago I woke up early to something very terrifying. I was 33 weeks pregnant and bleeding. 2 hours and 18 minutes after that scary wake up call, a beautiful tiny boy was born. Brettley was 4 lbs and 14 oz. He was tiny and terrifying. It took me forever to work up the courage to even hold him. He was our third boy, but it was like being a first time mother all over again (that really hasn't changed, when I stop and think about it). Our little boy is such a trooper. He spent a few weeks after his birth in the NICU, he spent his first few years with developmental delays and he is still working on his strabismus. And, it has to be said, he survives being the younger brother of Caleb and Ty.

Brettley loves trains, cars and anything boyish. He LOVES to eat. It's incredibly rare to find a food he won't eat, I can only ever think of one off the top of my head. His favourite colour is red. He is still on the short side, but he has a big personality. He has come so far in his 4 years and it is an honour to be his mother.

Personal Progress

So my (short) spiritual thought for this month...I've been thinking a lot about Personal Progress lately. What an amazing program available to the Young Women. I have finished it 3 times within the past 3.5 years (also finished the Honor Bee in there once) and have started it for a fourth time. It is such a HUGE testimony builder for me. I have also had the privilege of helping 3 girls finish the program very early on (2 to 2.5 years). I am absolutely certain that this program was inspired by Heavenly Father and would highly encourage any woman at any stage in her life to do it (or do it over again). I LOVE it!

Sorry this isn't longer. It's Brettley's birthday so I'm busy cooking and baking today, plus we have our annual suite inspection today and I'm also getting all of my last minute stuff done for my trip to Calgary since I'm leaving at 6 tomorrow morning.

Our January 2015

So the first Sunday in January had Brettley leaving nursery and starting Sunbeams in Primary. Caleb left Junior Primary behind and started Senior Primary. Brettley's milestones are slowly starting to become bittersweet for me. That in itself is hard for me, because in the past I've always been a mum who enjoys when their child moves on to new adventures and isn't sad about them leaving anything behind. It feels really weird for me. That day we also went back to  9 am church, which reintroduced the Sunday afternoon naps (yay!).

I also started doing a lot of research about Sensory Processing Disorder. I noticed a few things about Ty (and Caleb as well, if I'm being honest) and thought I'd check into it. They both have quite a few traits from it, so I found a LOT of information about. It has been an amazing learning experience. Also, the BEST book I've found for it so far for our particular circumstance is The Sensory Child Gets Organized (I even linked it for you). I linked it to Indigo because I feel an obligation to support the company that my brother works for (he manages the Indigospirit T.D. Square in Calgary).

My brother's father-in-law was very generous and brought my mum, stepdad and myself to an Oilers game this month. They were playing Chicago and we won and it was great! It was the first came I'd been to since 1997 when they were in the playoffs, so I was really excited to go.



I managed to reinjure my back again and for once it wasn't because I did something I shouldn't have been doing. It was (how to put this lightly...) Caleb related. I ended up having to go for a couple of massages because I was in a lot of pain (I was medicating every 3 hours and still was hurting so bad that I wanted to puke). I'm pretty much better now, but still taking it (relatively) easy.

John decided to introduce me to Gilmore Girls one night when we were looking for something to watch on Netflix. I. AM. HOOKED!

Caleb's class had an in-class field trip about Rocks and Minerals that I helped out with. I got to show the kids actual obsidian, so they were all obsessed with it. (Thank you Minecraft for making rocks and minerals more interesting to young kids)

And then I chopped my hair off again. I had been waffling on it for months. I have thick, naturally wavy hair. And here is why I hate it when people tell me that I'm lucky to have it...It's heavy, so it gives me headaches unless I have it thinned every week or two. It's horribly awkward to grow out. It looks awful when it's anything but short unless I actually DO my hair. I am a VERY low maintenance girl when it comes to my hair. So when I hurt my back again I knew that I wouldn't be able to straighten it again for months and chopped it off. I also got the purple temporary colour I mentioned the last post to occasionally put in my bangs. I'm really glad that I decided to cut it short again.

So, that was pretty much our January. I had to take allergy meds a few times thanks to all of the snow melting and exposing the snow mold (blah). Sorry there aren't more pictures. I really need to get better about taking pictures...Anyway, next week's post will be on Wednesday. Actually, there will be 2 because it's also Brett's birthday that day. But I'll be gone on Thursday, so that's not really an option. Have a good one :)