Happy 3rd Birthday Sabrina!

Last month Sabrina turned three! It was a day filled with swimming, hanging out with family and opening gifts. Sabrina and I went to the pool around noon and played for a bit. Poppa (a friend who is like a grandfather to Sabrina) came to watch and thus, mommy was actually in many of the pool photos. After swimming, we came home for lunch, opened presents (while watching the Olympics) and had cake. Sabrina had a good time and enjoyed the many gifts she received from family. Thank you everyone for thinking of Sabrina and being so generous. Enjoy the photos below.

Sabrina and Angela enjoying a swim.

Having fun going down the slide!

Sabrina opening presents and watching the Olympics.

Blowing out birthday candles!

Sabrina and Poppa enjoying birthday cupcakes!

Daddy and daughter time to finish off the day!

A Big Girl's Bed

During the holidays, we decided to buy Sabrina a regular twin size bed. She had been sleeping in a toddler bed for about 17 months. However, the last month or so had been plagued by sleep problems where Sabrina would wake up and come sleep with us. Wondered if she found the crib mattress on the toddler bed too hard. We have had the new bed for 3 weeks now and she generally is only up once in the night and is willing to be put back into her own bed. She has even slept through the night twice.

Nanny's Robe

Angela's mom (Nanny) made Sabrina a really warm and soft robe for Christmas. Sabrina fell in love with it and wore it for 24 hours straight including to bed. On boxing day, she changed into regular clothes to go do errands but ran to her room as soon as we got home to put her robe back on! Thanks Mom/Nanny for making such a beautiful robe! Sabrina loves it!

Merry Christmas

This entry is obviously late but I wanted to add a few photos of Sabrina from Christmas morning. Throughout December, Sabrina learned about the birth of Jesus. When I asked her about why we have Christmas, she would say "baby Jesus born!" in a determined, excited voice. My heart would melt every time; amazed at what children do pick up and understand. Overall, we had a quiet Christmas and enjoyed some time to relax. Scott only had a couple of days of over the holidays but the first week of January was slow and allowed him to rest. Here are some photos of Sabrina.

Sabrina enjoyed the plastic food with velcro. Able to pretend you are cutting various foods. She played for 20 minutues before we could convince her to open another present.

Scott putting together the train table.

Sabrina sitting down relaxing in her new robe and checking out a book while watching Daddy build her train table.

The completed train table.

Winter Has Arrived

It sounds like the majority of the country has experienced "true winter" this weekend. We definitely had our share of snow and poor road conditions here in Central Alberta. Sabrina loves the snow and helped me shovel the deck and stairs Friday night when we finally got home from work. There was a good 5-6 inches of snow and with the drifts the snow was easily half way up my calf. Yesterday, Sabrina and I ventured out to get groceries and visit Poppa and Nana. Red Deer does not ;pow the roads very well and thus, I greatly appreciated having a 4x4 SUV as that extra traction definitely helped getting through the snow. The photos below tell you more than I could in words.

The snow pile from clearing the walkway, deck and stairs.


Scott and Sabrina shovelling the sidewalk.

Angela

Baking with a Toddler

Last evening I decided to bake some cookies. Sabrina was in the kitchen and she loves to help out around the house. She pulled a chair up to the island and begin to mix the sugar and shortening together. She broke the eggs and added them to the mixture and stirred some more. Once the flour was added, Sabrina decided that she wanted to do something else but I was okay with that. This mother-daughter time reminded me of the many times I had helped my mom bake. It is the day to day moments that are often the most vivid memories. Helping mom bake during my teenage years gave us time to talk and share with each other. Some day, maybe Sabrina will have similar memories about helping me bake.

It is hard to believe that Sabrina is a little girl who is learning new skills and becoming more independent every day. She is now dressing and undressing independently, toilet trained (day and night), problem solves how to reach an item she wants (moves chairs or stools) and has improved her swimming skills. Watching her grow and change, reminds me of God's amazing detail in creation as children are true miracles in so many ways. I remind myself often that time is precious and absorb as much detail as I can. Thank you God for such a precious gift.

NS Visit

This blog is a bit outdated but decided that some of you would like to see photos of Sabrina with her relatives. We went to NS the first two weeks of September to visit family. Both sets of grandparents enjoyed some special time with Sabrina and memories were made. Scott and I also had a chance to visit PEI. Here are a variety of photos from our trip.