I Love My Family!

I am so incredibly thankful for my wonderful family! I've had such a great time in Alberta! I have many amazing things to share while we were here for the last month. We are going home tomorrow and I am so sad to leave but I think I'll survive... I hope. My mom said I would be the child (out of 4) that would be the least likely to move away from home but look at me now mommy... I live in Vegas! I may as well live halfway across the world, I'm sure it would still feel the same way! I do live in a different country - does that count for living so far away even though it's only a 3 hour flight from Vegas to Calgary?? I just have to keep remembering that time goes fast and that Chad will be finished with dental school one day although it seems like such a long time away!! Wow, I think I really sound like I'm whining... at least I feel like I am. That's okay though because I'm not afraid to admit that I'm too attached to my family and friends to live away from them. What's life if you're not surrounded by those you love, right??? Don't get me wrong, I love the people I've met in Vegas but no one can replace family. Thus, I am very grateful for them and I will miss them dearly.

Here is a cute story to share. I went to Costco in Red Deer with my older sister, my niece and my mom. My niece (Brooklyn) was hungry so I took her to the fab sampler stations they sometimes have in Costco so we could get her some food. We did the loop around the stations about 3 times. I was hoping the people giving out the samples wouldn't recognize me, although I'm sure they did. It was a little embarassing to keep getting food samples for my niece but she was hungry and she loved the toast and lemon cheesecake so those ones may have been visited a few more times that the others... I wasn't going to let her starve! We just picked her up from kindergarten so it's not like she normally goes hungry... just to set the record straight. I'm the aunty, I have more rights than mom's do as far as getting away with stuff right??? Anyway, because we had lost my mom and sister in the store somewhere (and after stuffing ourselves with samples) we decided to do some shopping on our own. Whoever thought shopping with a 5 year old would be so much fun! We were walking down the isles and she proceeded to tell me that she was the queen of all Brooklyn's. She told me she was the queen of all Mandy's too but after looking at my face (I must have looked disappointed that I wasn't the queen of all Mandy's), she then informed me that I was the queen of all Mandy's too and then we continued to chat about all the other names of people she was the queen of. I just love little kids! They say the cutest things!

We got to the end of one of the last isles where the fresh flowers are and we were sniffing all the different kinds. Brooklyn asked me which ones I liked and I told her that I like whatever the smelliest ones were. I bent down and and smelled a beautiful boquet of purple and white chrisanthimums so I picked them up for her to smell and she said "do you want those ones aunty?". Not thinking she was considering buying them for me, I told her yes. I went to take them from her to put them away and she said she would carry them for me. She carried them all over the store and then paid $10 for them! That's a lot of money coming from a child's allowance! I thought it was the sweetest thing in the world! I proudly displayed them and here is a picture of them.

Here are some pics of when we visited my sister in Red Deer. She has 2 darling kids, Brooklyn and Dawson and we just found out that she is pregnant with a third! Congrats Darren & Merrily! I'm excited to be an aunty again!
Here's a pic of Brooklyn and I...

This is my nephew Dawson who is 2...