Surgery- through Miss M's eyes

This is me before I leave the house with my doll Madison, I feel good, thumbs up.


This is me in my stripped pajamas at the hospital and I brought a stripped blanket for my doll to match. ( A true girl, the need for everything to match and she's not even 5)


I'm in the wagon ready to go in the operating room, my doll and I have matching bracelets.I'm holding a card I made for the Dr. while waiting to go in. (still smiling!)



This is me after surgery with a sore throat, but I did really good drinking my water. Can you see my IV- special needle in my hand- when they took it out it squirted blood on me and the nurse.



The boys brought me flowers at the hospital. Pink roses with babies breath. We watched a leap frog movie together in recovery. We even got to play in a large play room, down the hall from my room.

I asked Miss M to describe what she was doing or how she felt in each picture- hope you have enjoyed her first attempt at blogging and hearing about her tonsil surgery. She has recovered like a champ and after only one week is no longer taking any painkillers- so proud of my tough little girl!

Forgotten picture

I forgot to post this picture for my Mom to see. I know how much she loves eagles and while we were out on the water one flew by. I was balancing a sleeping child but managed to snag one picture of this beautiful and majestic bird.

Our family Vacation to Waterton

So we are down to only a few more weekends of Summer and we decided to make the most of it and spend the day in Waterton with some friends.So we loaded up a picnic lunch, sunscreen, children and took off.

We all enjoyed seeing a Brown Bear right as we entered the park- Miss M and Mr Ry were really excited to see animals (like a bear) outside of the zoo.

We later saw a few mountain goats, one that felt he needed a little more attention than others. Again the kids were shocked that it was just roaming free.

Miss M. was Happy to have her friend Mr Hay by her side. He was really excited for the horseback ridding we planned on doing and dressed the part. I think these two look so cute together!

Miss M. got to ride a pony named Ike. Ike was a bit of a handful and kept wanting to go off the path to eat the grass.Good thing Big Daddyo is good with horses and was able to convince Ike to take a stroll. Miss M really enjoyed the ride.

A real natural on the horse and a great Daddy daughter moment!I love how they are both smiling and enjoying their time together.

Mr Ry was next- he did not want to ride Ike in his own words "I want to ride a big horse" so he did and this horse is retired and much more co-operative to ride. Big daddyo took Mr Ry all over the place, and even got a canter going which Mr Ry was tickled about.

This little guy smiled for the entire 15 min he was on the horses back. This may have to be done again in the future!

Mr Ty was not convinced that horse back ridding was a good idea. But loved to see them from a distance!

Mr Ry's toes in the lake before our picnic lunch.

We then got to enjoy a 2 hour boat ride/ nap for the boys on our friend parent boat. It was funny because Mr Ty could barely move once his life jacket was on.

Miss M, Mr Hay and Mr Ry enjoying the soft rock of the boat as we cruised along.



All 3 enjoyed the spray park they had in town and were pleasantly surprised we let them play in it without their swimsuits as we had not packed them. I love Mr Ty thinking its a giant water fountain.

Oh the beauties that surround us- love the Miracle that God created for us to enjoy.

Simple sewing!!! Just my style!

I love following crafty blogs and getting new ideas.I found this easy skirt pattern on a link up party- you really should try this pattern.
http://showtellshare.blogspot.com/2011/07/simple-brown-skirt.html
It took me two hours from start to finish to make mine and only half an hour to make Miss M's. Mine are made out of T-shirt material= super comfy!
I love the teal colour for summer and spring and it goes great with white!



Miss M had an adorable butterfly sweater that matched perfectly. She was thrilled to have a new skirt and the fact that I made it "just for her" made her pretty happy too!


And yes I know I'm a geek for making matching skirts but its such a cute and easy skirt and I bought a lot of t-shirt fabric. Try it out- you will not be disappointed!

Oh, what do you do in the Sunnertime?

Oh what do you do in the Summertime? pg 245 childrens songbook

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by? Is that what you do? So do I!






Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you swim in a pool,to keep your self cool, or swing in a tree up high? Is that what you do? So do I!





Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!



So what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green? As you can see we are keeping busy making lots of great memories! Hope your summer is one to remember.

Where do I start!?!

So we have had a full house lately and my children are missing each of our visitors now that they are gone. We started with Aunty Meal coming out for a visit. The last time she had seen us Mr Ry was 4 months old, so you might say things had changed a bit. We were lucky to have her for Canada Day and attended the Raymond parade as per tradition. I love the smile on Mr Ty's face as he is perused by his Aunt- he loves to be chased.Thanks for coming Aunty Meal!

Next we had Uncle K arrive, we saw him last summer when he returned from his mission so this was only the second time for my boys to meet their cool Uncle K!He was a joy to have around and the kids loved him. It was great to have two extra people while driving to Montana- Uncle K kept busy with our vintage fisher price binoculars! Thanks for coming Uncle K!

This is a funny moment we shared with Aunty Meal as she was trying to open a container of Gummy worms to share with my eager "birds"... as you can see she could not get them opened fast enough :)

The next set of visitors were my Mom and Dad aka Grandma S and Grandaddyo-I love this picture of them and would like to congratulate them on 32 years of marriage, way to go! The kids thoroughly enjoyed having grandparents in the home- Thank you for coming Mom and Dad.

I love this picture of Uncle K with Grandma S, he is her youngest and I just love how they smile and interact with each other. You guys are awesome!

As long as I can remember my Mom was always serving people, she is and was a great example. I love this picture watching her tenderly serve my son and pass on the example of service that she taught to me.

Dad is always a clown- or at least always making me smile, this is him blowing up Mr. Ry's bat to play with in the back yard! He had fun and so did we.


Grandma S helping Mr Ty to enjoy the slide- you may not be able to tell from the look on his face but he loved it and gave his grandma lots of exercise as he wanted to do it again and again.


Uncle K hit it big when he thought it would be fun to throw the ball to the kids while they were on the swings and they would have to kick it to him mid swing. Super Fun.And made for some great action shots.

We also got to go to the Cardston Alberta Temple. What a treat to have such fun babysitters for the children who always take them to a park to play! Its a nice reminder that our family although rough around the edges is eternal!

Grandaddy Bonding with Mr Ry. Mr Ry can be a tough nut to crack and very reserved at times but after a day or two of being here he decided he loved his Grandaddyo. I love this one as they are in a similar stance to each other without even knowing I was snapping a picture.

Here Grandaddy is helping Mr Ry to float on a boogie board or Surfing as Mr Ry affectionately calls it- he loved it!

My Dad loves to play whack-a-Mole at arcades so we found him his very own game of it- This is Mr Ty attempting to beat Granddaddy's high score, I'm convinced if he had not been distracted by me he probably would have won ;)

Uncle K was a great swing pusher- My arms were grateful as this is Mr. Ty's favorite past time



Before Grandma S left we were able to have tea aka chocolate milk (chocolate milk for our chocohalic Grandma) with baby cookies at Miss M's new table, Mr Ry insisted on joining and arrived as a true gentleman- hat and all!

Thank you so Much for Coming Aunty Meal, Uncle K, Grandma S and Granddaddyo, we ( the whole Elford Family) really enjoyed you visit and making so many wonderful memories, come and visit again soon.