We are participating in a 24-hour adventure race this weekend called Questival. We are having a blast!
Nathan’s Letter
Nathan Thomas,
I wanted to print this letter from 5 years ago and give it to you because I want you to know and remember all these things. They are all still true today. I thought maybe you could keep these letters and read them over when life is rough.
Baby, life is only going to get harder. The next few years of your life could possibly be some of the most difficult. And I can’t change that for you. As much as I would like to protect you and keep you safe, I can’t. So I want you to remember some things as you go out into the world of teenagehood and endure the perils of junior and senior high school.
- You are loved. You are loved UNCONDITIONALLY by so many people – your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins…but most importantly, by your brothers and your parents. Unconditional means there are no requirements for this love, there is no way to lose it, or lessen it. We might have disagreements and be frustrated and angry with one another, but your dad and I will ALWAYS love you.You are loved by God. Faith is a finicky, tricky and difficult thing. Again, I can’t give you faith. I still struggle with faith every day. You will have to take your own journey. But I hope you will find comfort in knowing that there is a higher power that loves you.
- School is not the be all, end all. Don’t get bogged down by the drama that unfolds at school every day. You have a safe haven at home, at Nana’s, at Gran’s, at all of your auntie and uncle’s houses. One day, school will be over and whatever you have built outside of that will remain.
- Choose your friends wisely. You will be influenced by those you surround yourself with. If you are spending time with someone who is not contributing positively to your life, I would encourage you to distance yourself from them. Good friends will get you through the next few years. Not so good friends will take you down paths you do not want to go and to places that are difficult to come back from.
- You can always come back. No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done. You can always come back.
- You can always call/text us. If you are in an uncomfortable situation, get out. Say your mom needs you home now, text and I will come and get you. No questions asked.
- Make good choices. But when you don’t, we are here for you. You can always talk to us.
- Your brothers are your best friends. That is one of the most precious gifts I think I could have ever given you – each other.
Baby boy, I love you. Your dad loves you. So, so much. I can’t express this enough. Happy Birthday son.
Love always and forever,
Mom
June 2014
May 2014
May…my favourite month! 🙂
Jax at guitar lessons…
We went out for dinner as a family one night – the boys were so well behaved – it was really nice!
More swimming lessons…
For my birthday, Jason and I took Nate & Jax to see the new Captain America movie.
Hair cuts!
My birthday fell on Mother’s Day this year. I wanted to get a nice picture of me with the boys in their new shirts and ties, but both Nate & Logan were being so cranky. I told Jax he was my favourite kid that day – ha ha!
My little choir had their final concert…
Jax had a day at school where you go to see all the stuff they’ve been working on. This is him with his magazine he made as well as his painting of the Northern Lights.
Girls night!
For the long weekend, we headed up to the lake in BC for some family fun. I was doing a 100 Happy Days project with a photo and day and Shannon and Jonathan really wanted to make the cut, so they kept posing for photos.
This is their “hashtag” 100 Happy Days photo…
Nate & I went on a bike ride together.
Still two cuties at the kids table…
May is birthday month in the Popowich clan. Jonathan and I were the closest together and to the long weekend, so we got the cake! 🙂
Fun with fire & s’mores!
We all rode our bikes over to Gran & Grandpa’s place for a wiener roast!
This is what happens when you give a 4-year-old a marshmallow…
These are Grandpa’s infamous “club shirts” he got at an auction…
Playing in Grandpa’s sand pile…
May 31 was Jaxon’s 8th birthday. We opened presents in the morning…
For his birthday party, we had a “sports theme” and we invited all his friends over to Nana and Papa’s house for a wiener roast. The kids were able to run around and play all sorts of different sports. Easiest birthday ever!
April 2014
I am so proud of my Jaxy bear for coming up with and executing this Kandinsky inspired painting. He was pretty proud of it too.
Jax started taking guitar lessons in April. He loves it. I am taking with him and it is pretty fun!
April of course brings Nate’s birthday. This year he turned 10 – I HAVE A 10-YEAR-OLD!!! Here are a couple of gift opening pics…
For his birthday party, he had a “late-over”. I think sleep-overs are kind of dumb. The kids just stay up way too late, get all cranky the next day and then I still have party guests Saturday morning. So he was allowed to have 5 close friends over for a video game party and they boys stayed until 11 or so. His cousin Isaiah did sleep over and I think his BFF Jordan did too because we were babysitting.
When celebrated with my side of the family, we also celebrated Uncle Joel and Isaiah’s birthdays since they are all so close togehter.
Auntie Heather and Uncle Matt are building a house so they are living within walking distance of us right now and it is pretty fun to meet them at the park on occasion. Especially when it’s unintended! The boys LOVE to play with cousin Max.
One day I was busy doing stuff around the house and it got very quiet. I went around looking for Logan and couldn’t find him anywhere. When I went into my closet, I saw this…It made me laugh!
I got to go on a field trip with Nate’s class to Aggie Days, which I have never been to before. It was actually really fun and interesting. My favourite part was the rodeo they put on for the kids at lunch time. Also, the kids got to make their own rope. Very cool! This is Nate’s best friend at school, Jordan.
For Easter, we headed up to the lake in BC with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We all had such a good time. The Easter bunny came and left the kids a great egg hunt with quite the bounty and the end. It included stuff from all aunties, handmade stools and birdhouses from Grandpa and Gran and lots and lots of candy.
The stools that Ken made – aren’t they amazing? The letters all come out. Maxwell’s is missing from the picture.
All the grandkids sitting on their stools…
Nate LOVES his little cousins. He will be a great babysitter in a few years!
We also celebrated Nicky’s birthday because it was on the same weekend.
I think this is at Easter dinner. These two at the kids table were soooo cute.
Wrestling with Uncle Matt is definitely a favourite activity.
Cute little Max is just the right size for the firewood box.
The boys love to bike at the lake because they have so much freedom. Good thing Auntie Shannon was around to be Logan’s horse!!!
The rope swing is the favourite place to be at the lake and Logan thought he would try it for the first time this year. He didn’t really meet with success…
While the babies were napping, we tried to keep the big boys out of the house. I took them for a LOOOOOOONG walk to the gravel pit where they played quite happily for a long time.
The boys started to get really hungry but didn’t want to leave, so I walked back to the cabin to get them some lunch. It took me awhile and they started to get worried I wasn’t coming back, so they walked to meet me. It was cute how concerned they were that I would leave them in the middle of the forest – I told them I would NEVER, EVER leave them. Needless to say, next time we went to the lake, we brought our two way radios!
One night I came upstairs to find Logan like this. It made me giggle so of course, I took a photo.
Logan’s Acting Debut
So Logan’s teacher turned this cute book, “Don’t Wake the Bear” into a play for her class. The kindergarten aged children acted out most of the play and the 3 & 4-year olds just chimed in on the repetitive parts. What amazed me is that Logan memorized the whole thing. I thought it was so cute, I videotaped it. He actually could do it better than in this take, but wouldn’t do it again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0_Lx737V4Q&feature=youtu.be
March 2014
These two love each other and love to pose.
My cutie pie niece modelling some of my Grandma Steeves’ old jewelry.
Nate loves Cub Scouts. This is him with his Kub Kar he made with Jason – it’s supposed to look like a stack of $10 bills. The next pic is of him and his cake entry for Lord Baden Powell night (those little licorices are in different knots) and the last photo is of him competing in the knot tying competition which he ended up winning a prize at!
One of my favourite TV shows, Veronica Mars, made a movie that came out in March. I bought tickets in advance and got my two sisters to come with me, even though Nathalie hadn’t even seen the show. Then we went out for dinner. It was AWESOME!
March brings the end of basketball season. Here’s Nate with his best friend and team mate, Slade and then a photo of little Jax, who played basketball for the first time this year and loved it!
Logan’s class did this cute little play for their spring celebration. Logan actually memorized the whole play (it’s actually a book) and it amazed me so much. I recorded him saying it and I’m going to post it when I figure out how to do that! 🙂 Here he is at his spring celebration, looking so handsome!
We were blessed enough to be invited to my sweet niece’s baby dedication. I really wanted to get a photo of all the cousins, but that didn’t really pan out. Here’s the photos I did get.
I took my little choir to ChoralFest – they did so, so well, despite the fact that they were missing 4 members and there was only 8 of them!!
My mom and I went to Montana for spring break with the boys. Good times!
Swimming with the boys – such posers!
Celebrating with my friends!
February 2014
One late night, Joel, Kenny & I went out to photograph the northern lights. Good thing my brothers knew what they were doing, or I would have ended up with pictures of black sky. But aren’t these awesome??
Joel and I took the boys skating…
My little artist…Jax got this art set for Christmas and he loves to paint.
One day, Wolverine showed up in my room…
Cutest Starbucks date ever…
Everyone was Olympic hockey crazy. The kids got to watch some games in school. Of course Canada won gold in both women’s and men’s and my little hockey nut Jax was very excited.
I went on a field trip with Jax’s class to the Glenbow museum – it was really fun. Especially because our teacher was my good friend Amy!
Babysitting my sweet niece Addie…
January 2014
Tobogganing with cousins Corinne and Michael from Australia…
Mom, Joel and I took the kids to Gasoline Alley at Heritage Park over the winter break. It was pretty fun! I think the kids had a great time.
Gran & Grandpa shared their tickets with us so we could go to the Hitmen game. It was so fun!!
Gran hosted Ukrainian Christmas and the elves came and brought the kids a treat. This is the kids looking up the chimney to see if they can see him.
Babysitting Max – I made his cute little hat.
Jason and I were lucky enough to go to Mexico with our friends. We had a lot of fun together!
Venturing into Cancun for some shopping.
We took the ferry over to Isla Mujeres for the day. I love this photo of Nelson holding Mary Anne’s purse.
The view of our hotel from the water.
Exploring Isla Mujeres…
We rented a golf cart to drive around the island. Jason almost dumped poor Mary Anne off of the back when he was driving.
Jason and Nelson messing around with the hammock.
Day trip to see the cenotes and Chichen Itza. Mary Anne was sick, so she stayed at the resort. Nelson is posing so that we could photoshop Mary Anne into the picture – ha ha!
That’s right…that’s Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis giving a free concert at our resort – I was kinda excited about the whole thing. No one else even knew who they were
One day I came across Logan on the toilet, flipping through this truck parts magazine. It made me laugh – looks like his Daddy!!
