Open Skating

It is most likely the last open skating of the year today. And Gillian did the whole thing without the bar. The bar was replaced by the wall or Uncle Bob. She did very good and I know she can do it on her own. She just needs the confidence to do it.

Change Bandit!

Gillian's school is raising money for the VT Children's Hospital which is something that hits home for us. That is where Gillian was as a preemie and all her follow up care for the first 4 years of her life was done there. So I spread the word that we had a bandit and she collected change from everyone...$110 worth! I was so proud to have to drive Gillian to school so that she could hand in her change (she insisted she could take it on the bus but she struggled to hold the one jar in the picture).

Happy Birthday Ava!

Tubing

We wanted to have a family day because it's not always that Craig is off with us on the weekends. So we made plans with the Prell family and all headed to go tubing. What a blast! I'm pretty sure the adults had as much fun (if not more) as the kids.

Happy Valentine's Day

Death

Tonight I explained to Gillian why people die, their bodies are too sick/hurt to continue and she immediately said then they get a gravestone and I said yes. We discussed that everyone has a spirit that either goes to heaven (good people) or hell (bad people) and that your spirit is similar to a ghost but not scary. Spirits that go to heaven are angels; they get there with their wings. All dogs go to heaven (we discussed Peanut). Your spirit is the memories that your loved ones keep of you when you are no longer here that makes your spirit live on. We discussed Emma Grace’s Daddy and when I see Emma Grace she reminds me of her Daddy that brings memories which keeps his spirit alive. Then we needed to discuss that Gillian has Daddy’s eyes and Mommy’s nose and lips and they remind others of us through her (she was very intrigued on what she gets from where). We also discussed how we have Gabriel watching over us because he is an angel. We aren’t sure where the question came from; Gillian brought it up and was curious. I didn’t want to scare her or have her worry about people around us dying but I also wanted to be as truthful as possible.

Ice Castle

Most years for as long as Craig and I have been together we have gone up to the ice castle. A couple years back we started taking Gillian. It's always a fun time. This year Craig couldn't come as he was working both weekends that it was going on. So Gillian and I asked Emma to join us. It was a very good time with the exception of when they took off and for 3 minutes I thought I had lost them and was stressing right out. I found them had my super angry parent moment and we went on with our trip.

More Open Skating

Open Skating

Gillian got to do some open skating with some more family. Sean, Andrea and Emma were also at skating which pushed Gillian to work harder. Whenever Emma wanted to give up the bar so did Gillian which was nice to see. It was a fun couple of hours.

Happy 34th Birthday!

Gillian and Craig making getting older so much easier (and fun). This is us in our home made party hats because the store didn't have Phineas and Ferb party hats. I think I appreciated them more because they were made just for us:)

Christmas

Christmas has taken on such a new meaning since we had Gillian and I'm reminded of it every year. Christmas was always a fun holiday but I definitely think that Gillian has taught both Craig and I the true meaning of Christmas. We enjoy all the family time and outings that come with the season. We enjoy that moment in the morning when Gillian wakes up and realizes that Santa has been. We love that Christmas is no longer one day but spread out over 3 so we have the time to enjoy with each of our families. It is truly an amazing time of year and I hope that we are always able to treasure it.

Christmas Eve

Gillian got a pair of ice skates from Uncle Bob for Christmas (we celebrate with Uncle Bob before Christmas). She was very excited because they have purple on them and now she wouldn't need to rent skates. Best time to try them out was on Christmas Eve and it was nice Uncle Bob could join Gillian. Going from figure skates to hockey style skates was not as easy as anticipated...we learned that apparently she used her toe pic ALOT. I'm confident she will get it..regardless she always has fun out there!

Brave Pin

Gillian's school has a program where they earn brave slips for doing stuff and after you earn so many they receive the brave pin. Gillian received her brave pin today...it was a huge honor for her and a huge honor to us as parents. We were invited to go see her receive her pin.

Christmas Party

Gillian has been lucky to go to a Christmas party at her Grampie Miner's work since she 20 months. She looks forward to this party every year and it's always nice that his company does this for the kids.

Holiday Story Night

Gillian school has tons of activities in the month of December for the holidays. Story night, holiday shop and holiday concert plus her class has special activities. It is pretty exciting. Craig, Gillian and I all enjoyed the holiday story night.