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The last two days Sophia and I have been watching this video by Feist over and over again. I saw it on Jessi's facebook and I knew Sophia would love it. She goes to creative dance (core-ative dance, she says) and talks through the video. "Whooo now they are all skipping. Oh, now she's flying!"

Hope you enjoy the "rainbow dancers" too.

buddies

These two are getting to be friends. They make each other laugh. In two weeks time Eleanor will be one, and I can't imagine life without her. Sophia alone seems out of place now. Such a funny pair.

We re-organized Sophia's toys and books and all our toy shelves in the LR today. It s quite something what a thrill I get out of a re-organized shelf. I do actually get a little adrenaline rush out of it. Am I alone on that? It looks so great... but the best part was that the girls and I spent a lot of time together while we were doing it. So often I feel like I have to pick spending time with them or doing housework, but today was a great day of both.

Eleanor gives Kisses

So turn your computer 90 degrees clockwise.
And prepare to be wowed by the cuteness.

what we did today

Well, it was a momentous day. After living in our house since July 1, 2006 (the day we started painting) we finally painted the end of the hallway. The end of my hallway holds my laundry area and there is a shelf that is all the linen/household storage I have.

I wanted to take before and after pictures like Heather did with her table, but I had already cleared the shelf by the time I took the picture. So for those of you who had never seen the pit, imagine this shelf complimented with piles of laundry, zip loc bags stuffed every where and jumbled linens all thrown on top. It was nasty!


And now....


I'm so happy!!!! Shout out to the brown boxes Angela gave me..

And speaking of Heather, she made me the most amazing altered canvases for the girls with their full names and meanings on them and we finally hung them today. (Because the tool box was at the office, and then we had no nails and then it was Christmas.)

So here they are...


But then we had to take another picture because Sophia forgot to wear her crown in the first one.


BTW, Eleanor's necklace is one that she puts on herself. She puts on necklaces and scarves and things her own every day, and then climbs onto chairs and sits the right way round and likes to rock. It is pretty great, but the other day her "scarf" was a particularly festive pair of panties...


That's my girl!

Epiphany

Some of My Favourite Photos* of 2007

If 2007 had a theme for me, it was joy. Our 2nd baby girl, our Joie-baby, came to us, as well as the increasing revelation that in order to really experience joy, I need to be brave enough to be awake to all the tough stuff that life brings too. I am so glad that this was the year we seemed to be ourselves again, to find much joy (at times amid sorrow) and be in a place now to dream bigger dreams.

It is also from this place that I was able to bid farewell to my dearest Angela, going across the water with her man for a rest. What a hole to have inside me; what deep, deep joy I have for you, Ange. I can't wait to see your new home and life in Oz. Happy Birthday today, dear Angie Angie. It is no coincidence that you feature greatly in the following group of my fave snaps of last year.

When Sandra took this picture, our beautiful Eleanor was only a few minutes old. We had her at home and called excited godparents Ange and Leigh to come right over. When they got there, we said, "It's a girl, and if it's alright with you, we'd like to call her Angela Eleanor Joie."


My Dad, Bob at Sophia's 3rd birthday. One of the only photos in existence of him really smiling.


My auntie Gill, my godmother, my friend.


At our 10th wedding anniversary, Kits Beach. We're praying. Or taking a quick nap.


Me and my sister Angela. Sometimes people get us mixed up.


The last time we did this and people banged their glasses for us to kiss, it seemed our hands were more free...


Sophia and my brother (although she insists he is HER brother) Matt.


Out for sushi at the eatery on Leigh's birthday.



Sophia sleeping at "Joie", my cousin Michael's farm and winery.



I know this one was on a recent blog, but it is really a fave....



Christmas Eve. Our girls. (How did we get two - 2! - kids - who are so big and great and funny?) Amazing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!


*Photos 1 - 7 & 11 are copyright 2007 Sandra Vander Schaaf Photography . If you wish to copy, share, print or use these photos in any way, contact Sandra first for permission. Cheers.

ho ho ho

Christmas was lovely. This was the first year of my life I can say I genuinely enjoyed watching my kids open all their stuff more than I worried about my own gifts (well, mostly ;).

We went back and forth and back and forth about whether or not to tell Sophia the truth about Santa. There are some people in life I really respect who think it is wrong to lie to your kids about Santa, and I am really, really black and white about lying in every other area of my life. But I LOVED believing in Santa as a kid. I love movies about Santa. I love love love Christmas and I as a kid always knew it was about Jesus and got all the magic and wonder of both believing in Santa and understanding about Jesus too.

But in a moment of feeling like Santa was taking over the Jesus focus, we finally told Sophia that Santa is a game we play, and he is pretend and Jesus is real, and you know what? She didn't care - it was as if we had never told her anything. She wanted to put out cookies and milk and a carrot for the reindeer, she wrote a note and was so excited to see it gone in the morning She embraced Santa wholeheartedly and just did all the Santa stuff anyway and we all had a ball- and she lit the advent wreath and sang a beautiful song to Jesus too.

I took a video of her and she explained Christmas to me, just like Emma did. This is how she sorts it : the Grinch is not real, he is on tv. Santa is different, he is a real pretend guy, and Jesus is real. And I realized that's how I feel about Santa too. He's always been a very real pretend guy in my life as well and on Christmas morning when my daughter said "Oh wow! Santa got me just what I wanted!" I felt only joy, joy, joy.

piglet

So guess who got a piglet costume AND learned to smile at cameras too?

Yay Eleanor!

whoa!

Well, exciting is right. The writer did an amazing job of the story, which you can read here and we are really hopeful good things will come of it.

The only thing is... when this picture was taken, I was wearing a bathing suit top. Apparently the magic of photo shop was employed to make my left breast appear to the world - yikes!.... I thought of calling the editor - Wade thinks I'm overreacting, but I still feel pretty naked.

My kids are sure cute, aren't they?

heroeseducatorlemonelizabethnog

We're pretty excited... our family is going to be on the cover of the Vancouver Courier newspaper tomorrow, with an article recommending our soap as "One of 10 gifts you can feel good about buying this Christmas." The paper is free and goes to 265,000 people!

Today was a good day. Tomorrow is a goodbye party for Ange and Leigh. God has helped me a lot in not grieving them before they're gone. The dark part of my soul says "well, everyone leaves". The bright part says "we're planted here for a reason" and "we are permanently connected to Ange and Leigh". Hmmm.

Jan tagged me in the same game...

Here are the rules: You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.) When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post and then choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Joanna Helen (Helen is my Mum's name.)

H- Heroes. I love the show "Heroes". I don't usually follow shows. I haven't followed one week to week since X Files. It's awesome... Sylar is back!

E- Educator. It is a very bold title I don't think I'm entirely worthy of, but I am a good teacher. I love to teach at YWAM, when I get to give the sermon at church, or explain something new to Sophia. Teaching gives me life and joy.

L- Lemon. Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Soda. San Pellegrino Limonatta. A perfect lemon tart.

E - Elizabeth is my sister's name and if there is anyone I could have coffee, shop with and have an extended walk on the beach with today, it would be her. I have seen her for exactly 48 hrs in the last 3 years. The same 48 hrs is the only time I have spent with her son Kawai and she with Soph. She has never met Eleanor. She lives in Hawaii and she is a kick butt single Mum & ER nurse who saved a guy's life a couple of weeks ago by breaking his ribs doing CPR on the floor of Chili's. I have been apart from her so long something in me is missing a little bit.

N- Nog. of the Egg kind. I recently ended a sugar fast when God brought in the $75,000 we needed to make the down payment on our YWAM building. (It was exhilarating - the last 23,000 came in in ONE DAY!) Every morning since I have making myself decaf half milk half eggnog lattes every morning. 'Tis a happy thing indeed.

I tag Hannah and Ryan.

butterflies

"Mum, Mum, put my old butterfly wings on Eleanor for her to be a butterfly too!"

"She likes it!"

coolness

Yay! I'm so proud of my hubby. Not only did he enter and win a huge prize in the Utilikilt contest with his sweet video, but he got his special limited edition prize winner's kilt yesterday, and they done stuck his picture right on the front of the kilt.


That's him second from the top (amidst scenes from the other prizewinners), triumphantly toasting our beloved city. I told him last night that when he first described the concept of the video to me, I was able to picture this exact shot, and there it was, on the prizewinning kilt. Yeah, pretty much everything he does is art.

10 fabulous things

1) My new boots that allow me to dry and stylish while wheeling the babes about the 'hood.

2) The 40th birthday party I went to on Tuesday for my cousin Michael, with the unlimited supply of gourmet nibblies, champegne and good conversation.

3) Eleanor has learned to clap. Joy personified.

4) Playing princesses with Sophia. It is a delightfully-non-Disney-affected game, where she is Princess Melanie and I am sometimes Princess Glory and sometimes Queen Joanna. Eleanor is Princess Joie or Princess Ta-ta-ta-ta. We live in the sun castle or the rain castle, depending on the weather.

5) The great time I had last weekend with my parents, brother and youngest sister in Victoria with my sisters 5 kids. We ate tons of junk food, ran around like crazy, swam in a wave pool and took home movies of it all to send to our other sister who we missed desperatley.

6) The fact that I get to teach twice this week, once today with Wade at the DTS, and once at church on Sunday. Gives me life.

7) The video shoot last night that wade and did that the BWC types are turning into cooking show podcasts...stay tuned.

8) Wade.

9) Doing 'Angels and Mortals' this week with Sophia & the DTS. It's hilarious. The guys in this school have done some hilarious things this week, so funny!

10) Christmas is coming! Starbucks had red cups! I bought Christmas crackers! and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...what a good gift.

good times on all hallow's eve

We had a great time going out with my Auntie Gill and Uncle Paul (aka the moon and the sun).
Though when Sophia told someone else about their costumes she said, "Uncle Paul was the sun and Auntie Gill was a goat!" I guess I can see that now... sorry Auntie Gill!

We're not sure who had more fun, the butterfly or the sun.

into the mouths of babes

This is Ben. He is my friend and (after a misunderstanding during a Christmas shopping trip years ago) my little brother. He flies planes in Australia and I miss him so much I just don't think about it most days.

When we were trying to get pregnant with Eleanor, he left Canada and before we even knew she would exist, we asked Ben to be one of her godfathers. He has still never seen her in the flesh, but she is learning about him.

We have been paying the "airplane" game when we feed the girls since Sophia was a baby, zooming spoonfuls of food into their mouths under the guise of it being Uncle Ben flying in his airplane. I guess you never know what your kids pick up, because today I asked Sophia to try and feed Eleanor a little avocado. She was doing great with her and in the brief moment of peace I went to check my email and instead wound up composing one to Ben. I had to tell him that over my shoulder I heard Sophia in a sing-song voice say to Ella, word-for-word:

"Here comes Uncle Ben, flying in his airplane, over the koala bears, over Australia, over the Wiggles, into Eleanor's mouth! Good job, Eleanor!"

Love you, Ben.

these days

Sophia and Rebecca being kitties, with their faces painted with cocoa paste,
just like my Mum used to do with me.

Well, today is the 30th, but as you can see from the date above, I started this post 2 weeks ago - sorry for the silence - if only you could access all the mental blogs I've composed! Seems computer time is a rare thing these days. For real. I have been sorting through the ups and downs of a whole new phase of motherhood. Having a 3 year old and an 8 month old is hard work - have you heard about that? So how do I say that without feeling it's a total negative? Without explaining that in the same day I can feel incredible joy and extreme anger? That just saying, "It's hard" is not betraying me, my kids, my Mum, God? I guess you just say it.

Today is an up. I feel like I am making progress. that is my mantra these days thanks to Fly Lady - "Progress, not perfection."


Eleanor is seriously mobile and so that means a whole new level of baby watching. She has four teeth and is fearless, she tosses herself headlong everywhere - Wade may get his dream retirement plan of child professional skateboarders yet, though Sophia is not sure she wants to learn to juggle fire yet. Today Sophia decided to empty her own potty- full of poo - in the bathroom sink. She was so good about it "Oh Mum, I am so sorry, I will never ever do that again", it was easy to be gracious - just smelly.

We were tagged weeks ago (I can't believe it, wasn't it just the other day?) by Ari & Noah
and it's our first tag! so here goes:

Here are the rules: You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.) When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post and then choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Sophia Joanna Jubilee

J - Joyous - Sophia wakes up happy every day. I can never ever remember her waking grumpy.

U - Ubiquitous - I learned this word from Don Neufeld. It means it seems you are everywhere at the same time. From the music to fun to the mess, Soph fills up the house when she is here.

B- Ballet- she was meant to take ballet in July but the 4 month, city wide strike cancelled the class, yet she still loves all things balletic, dances a lot and believes she is an excellent ballerina already, though no professional has ever told her so. I hope that confidence never goes away.

I- Ice Cream - There can never be enough. The only child I know who at the age of 2 turned down plain vanilla ice cream with smarties because she heard us talking about gelato later on.

L- Lyrical - (OK, I used a thesaurus for this one) - Sophia sings all the time and makes up songs. Wade and I often comment that her life is a musical.

E- Eat - She loves to eat all kinds of things I had never even tasted until I was in my 20's. her education started early and she still loves to find treats in her Malaysian seafood soup and yell "Squid!"

E- Exultant - It has been so interesting to see our girls become what we named them. (or rather, see how what God put on our hearts for their names, come to pass) We named Sophia with the middle name Jubilee and she is a kid who loves to celebrate. She LOVES it when it is any one's birthday and she has pretend birthday parties all the time. her Auntie Heidi gave her some money the other day, and despite my explanations that we had lots at home she chose to buy her own package of birthday candles to play birthday with. Jubilee indeed.

Angela Eleanor Joie

J - Joie - joy in French. She is what she is called. The Joie-baby is SO happy so much of the time and laughs and makes others laugh too.

O - Outgoing - she;'s already diving in to any kind of movement, pulling herself up, and when we do "ladies ride" bounces on our knee - she has been known to flip her own legs over her head!

I - Ir·re·press·i·ble - incapable of being repressed or restrained; uncontrollable: irrepressible laughter.

E - EEEEEEEEEEE! the sound she makes most often to communicate. She's a screamer!

Thanks Heather - this was fun!

So, since you can tag one person for every letter in your name (I will be merciful and choose Joie), I tag Jan, Leanne, Jessi and Ange and Jamie
and since I have a bizarre habit of memorizing people's middle names, I look forward to see what Leah, Beth, Mae, Amy and Lee have to tell us about themselves.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...we celebrated yesterday and our friend Hannah took a few pics of the fam.

And now Sophia wants to type.

ryn4ybt5j9uy7nnjiyh hgnbyhghuj uttgdfru85tyb7tu8by7b77b6bytyy6t6tg6by5tybgu5805tbyt5by5b5bu5bt6b6bt689bu5tun5nn8u76tutut gi5t5nugt5nnbgbssds jfunng g5ntr5bqer7h7u56yuyyuthghmnby
h
lu

yumr8tfyhng44nfyftnnt

(This says: Happy Thanksgiving at church and we also has another Thanksgiving at our house. When are you coming to see us soon? from Sophia Pallister.)





One of the best, best things about yesterday was the fact that our dear Ralph was with us. He's in town for a couple of weeks and the way he and Soph are looking at each other kind of sums up the reunion. She was pretending to be a dentist and she was taking care of him. Hooray for reunions.

That is the turkey under the foil and the most amazing buns ever, the homemade Pumpkin Focaccia buns! Hooray for a husband that cooks! (yes, we have an industrial stove - God loves Wade very, very much.)

the utilikiltarian

Last week when we were in Seattle we stopped in at the Utilikilt store to pick up Wade's winnings from the video contest he won.



We had a great time visiting with all the guys at the store and they treated us like rock stars. The editor newsletter, CJ, rolled out the red carpet for us and we discovered today that he had written about our visit in his newsletter.

Click on this link here to view what he wrote about us - it's pretty sweet (scroll all the way to the bottom) and make sure you click on all the underlined bits to view the full experience!

so, just to spell it out...

Just in case you missed it, in my last post when i said,

"Even though I say I think we've tried everything, I'd still love any encouragement or advice anyone has to offer....."

that was me, asking for some encouragement and advice.

(If you're praying for us, thanks, the last 24 hrs have been much better.)

another post already....

This morning Sophia and I were having a contest to see who was grumpier and no one was winning. Jennifer called right at the moment when I was losing it and invited us out for coffee. Time with her and Rebecca at a family-friendly cafe, time in the park, collecting gorgeous fall leaves were all therapy much needed for us both. We made art later.

It finally dawned on me, after saying to multiple friends, "I don't know what to do. Sophia keeps hurting Eleanor and nothing we are trying is working", that I could pray about this. I feel like an idiot to not have thought of it before. What a concept, huh? So, if you think of it, and you are reading this, could you please pray Sophia will stop hurting Ella? I think it is all about power, attention and drama, which are no strangers to my own personality - but I guess the fruits of the Holy Spirit will do the trick. I could use some of those too as I feel farther and farther from them every time I get SO mad Sophia has hurt Eleanor again. It makes me feel like a terrible Mum and just need some help... and we've tried it all, I think.


On the good side, they do (miraculously) adore each other and Eleanor looks at Soph like she hung the moon. (Thank God.) Sophia has taken to greeting Eleanor by saying "Hey Ella Bella, the cat and the fella, the cow jumped over the moon."

Photos taken by Nunuboo at a soap event we recently attended.

Even though I say I think we've tried everything, I'd still love any encouragement or advice anyone has to offer.....

William Tell Overture for Moms

This is funny.