
A Virtual Scrapbook of Memories
~*~September Means Starting School ~*~

Chores are always more fun
with a Rhyme
with a Rhyme

It seems that if you can turn any chore into a poem, little people are more apt to join in. We've been saying this a lot lately, just trying to survive cold and flu season.
How to make life a little easier with a baby

First, watch this video once or twice. This is a clip from Oprah.
This woman figured out the 'Dunstan baby language'.
I found this info so helpful with all of my babies. Before they would full blown cry, you could figure out if they were uncomfortable, hungry, gassy or tired. All those newborn sounds actually can tell you something.
I swear by it, and recommend it to all my friends with newborns. If you respond to their pre-cries, it can last until they're six months old at which time you move you the baby signing. You can communicate with your baby from the beginning.
Secondly, Spend the time learning Baby Sign Language. I started around 5 months of age, and began with only two to three signs. I think we did Milk, More, and Eat. (make sure they are signs that you use frequently) It takes time for your babies brain to make the connection between WORD-SIGN-ACTION/OBJECT, but once they figure that out, and sign back, you can add more signs, one or two at a time, more quickly. Now you've got this little six-seven month baby, who cannot talk, but can communicate their wants and needs to you. By age one, my girls could ask for medicine when their teeth hurt, ask for more banana, sign I Love You (best one ever), ask (demand) a diaper change, ask for a drink etc. Older children can participate too.
What an absolute blessing to empower your baby to communicate, and I can almost promise that your life as a mommy will be easier until they can actually use words to tell you what they want. I can personally recommend both of these books as I used them myself.


Her Grandmothers Dress, her Great-Grandmothers rings





100 years ago, our Matriarch was born
5 Generations of women
5 Generations of women
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Our Family, Progressively Speaking.



2016
Thanks to an image I found on Pinterest, and some good timing, we were able to start this tradition. I am so happy to keep it going. Some of the pictures were taken by professionals, and some were taken by family members. This black frame will hang in our house forever. This is what love looks like. Every Year.

2015

2014
Photo by Leah Laurie
Photo by Leah Laurie

2013
Photo by Jen Jaques
Photo by Jen Jaques

2012

2011
Photo by Kennedy Photografik
Photo by Kennedy Photografik
Our Lovely Little Green Wedding Photographs by Kennedy Photografik

Dearest Daughters
Our Four year anniversary is coming up, and it's making me reminisce about that day in April 2011.
My husband proposed Christmas morning, 2010, in Tofino.
We started to plan a quick engagement, as we also announced that day that I had little Miss B growing in my tummy. Kevin had been planning on proposing Christmas morning for a while, and we had only found out ten days before that we were expecting. I wanted to enjoy the excitment of our engagement so we kept our pregnancy very quiet until Valentines day
We planned a small seventy-five person wedding in four months. We DIY'd everything we could, and held the whole wedding, ceremony, dinner and reception in the same small local restaurant called Tree Frog Bistro. It was beautiful, the food was so delicious
and we had a great musician entertaining us.
We used green and white beach glass from my parents collection, and our gift to the guests were heart shaped birdseed feeders. My mom found the fabric at the local thrift shop and we had the twine and wooden beads on hand, so the whole thing cost little more than the bird seed, a heard shaped pan like this and a lot of sewing and surging time. (thanks mom & grandma!)
We had a tribute table for our loved ones that had passed away, but we wanted to honour them and include them in our special day.
Our thumb print tree guest book, was an Etsy find which has hung in the girls nursery all these years.
I made many, many ribbon napkin rings; many tissue paper pom poms and agonized over the seating chart.
Every table was given a paper and pen to add up the age of all the guests at that table. The table with the highest age totals got to eat first which ensured that our grandparents would get to eat first (after the wedding party of course)
The dress and veil was my moms. I planned on wearing it since I was a teenager and I tried it on for the first time. I loved the simplicity of it, as it was an off the rack dress from The Bay back in 1979. The sentiment to me of wearing my moms wedding dress meant more to me than any brand new dress could come close to, and it only needed minor alterations to a) make room for my expanding baby bump, and b) transform a 1979 lace caplet and bring it into modern fashion.
I found a local seamstress who was able to add in the lace up panel in the back to accommodate my growing belly, and she changed the simple lace caplet into a modern bolero jacket. The talented seamstress even reused the original fabric covered buttons on the caplet and put them on my bolero and the button loops were reused on the back lacing of the dress. Wearing my moms dress was more priceless to my sentimental heart than any expensive dress could have ever been. In total, the alterations for the dress was like sixty-five dollars. I told her that she should charge more.
We altered the veil to be a bit more modern and tuck in to the back of my hair. This dress was priceless to me, and I'm lucky that my mom had such great taste as to pick a timeless wedding dress that I could wear.
The Broach. This was my maternal Great-Great Grandmothers, and every woman in our family has worn it on their wedding day. That delicate little piece of jewelry has special significance to me because it has followed the path of women in my family through the generations to where I am. When our daughters get married, they will be the seventh generation to wear it. You cannot put a price on that kind of tradition.
My beautiful bouquet of garden roses was provided by flowers by Cori-Lynn and she saved some green berries for the wedding cake and my hair. My little green clutch was found at a local thrift shop called Charlie Rose. My hair and make up were done by Beyond Bliss and we got ready in their beautiful suites upstairs. (which we spent our wedding night in as well. Luckily the spa was just a few doors down from our wedding venue so we were able to walk both ways.
The Ceremony Photos by Kennedy Photografik
I walked down wedding the isle to a local musician, Tom Dowding from The Music Room playing Tuolumne by Eddie Vedder on the guitar. The song couldn't have been more perfect, and can be listened to by clicking the video.
Our siblings were our Maid of Honor and Best Man; My Brother and Kevins' sister stood up for us and did a great job, and really helped us focus on the idea of family first.
We wanted to keep the ceremony simple, so we wrote our own vows. (can be seen below) The officiant called me by the wrong name (Kristin instead of Kirstin) and then referred to me as Kevins Husband, but otherwise it went off without a hitch. And then we were hitched. After seven years as a couple, and knowing each other for fifteen, we were finally husband and wife.

Wedding Photos at Grandmas
All Photos by Kennedy Photografik

Kevins Grandma has property that we've used a few times for family portraits, for obvious reasons. April was a perfect month to get married for us, and the weather held out beautifully, with only a sprinkling of rain during our photo session. I forgot my flat shoes for photos, and couldn't very well navigate those cliffs with heels, so I posed for all these pictures while barefoot. And pregnant. Ha! Jenn Kennedy is so talented and has such vision, she did an amazing job. One tradition we have is golfing off the cliffs from grandmas' front door, so we had to do it on our wedding day as well.


Dearest Daughters
Sometimes the darkest moments have the most profound life lessons. After spending years in an abusive relationship when I was a teenager, I resolved that I would never let anyone treat me that way again; I learnt my lesson. I get to choose how I let people treat me which sometimes means just walking away.
I encourage you to find someone like your dad when you're older. He treats me with respect and love. He believes in me and lets me be myself. He paints my toe nails and rubs my sore shoulders. He does dishes, laundry, and bath time. He builds forts with you and your sister, and chases you around the house while you both giggle. He isn't afraid of being silly, he indulges my creative whims, and gives me a break when it's been a long day.
He cooks us food, loves us unconditionally and provides stability in our day. Find a spouse like your Daddy, and don't accept anything less than what you deserve.
For my little Queens

Dearest Daughters
It may seem simple, but its true; you teach people how to treat you. You have no control over how people act, but you do have the power to accept how they act towards you. To be silent towards mistreatment is like granting permission for it. Never be afraid to speak up for yourself or those you care about. It's perfectly acceptable to tell people that it's not okay to be treated poorly. Hold yourself to a standard of grace and stand strong knowing that you deserve to be treated fairly and kindly. In return, you must treat others the same way.
These lessons are especially true when it comes to loving someone. Have high standards for yourself and those who love you.