{Pretty}

In mid February Ethan and I went to the the installation of the new Bishop. The Catholic elementary schools prepared some beautiful secular and sacred artwork for the occasion. Look at these lovely ones by the Grade 4 classes in the style of the late Ted Harrison!

The art teacher offered this stunning rendition of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. Ethan has been learning to mimic sacred art traditions in his religion class. Below you will see his version of our Lady which I felt was quite well done!

{Happy}

Cabane à sucre at the Yukon Rendezvous festival! Ian had gone hunting and so the least I could do was take the kids to the sugar shack. It is apparently a fine art so it takes about 20 min to get the syrup to a certain temperature so that it will turn into a candy type consistency. They then pour it in the hot snow and roll it up onto a stick for the kids to stick in their mouths.

Xavi’s first birthday was a success! He single-handedly devoured most of that cake and whenever we put anything slightly resembling a cake in front of him he starts to shake and scream at the table. People are impressed when we put out a nice bowl of mashed potatoes to see our 14 month old start to go crazy reaching for it. Taste is truly one of the most amazing sensory experiences.

{Funny}

Here is Ysabeau dressed up – by Ethan-to resemble the Queen. If you are wondering where the dress is, Ethan has explained that this fashion choice is to closely resemble what the Queen wears around the house. As funny as Ysabeau finds it, I bet Ethan choices are pretty close to what England’s very practical queen would wear.

Here we have Ethan and Ysabeau’s interpretation of a Boxtroll.

Wardrobe choice for Ysabeau is truly a losing battle on my part. But I stand my ground when it comes to maintaining some level of practicality. Here I managed to just catch Ysabeau after she went to the entry way and called up explaining she is going next door to visit her friend Ember. Normally I wouldn’t look, but I am glad I did this time. It was -20 outside. Here I have just asked her to consider what might be lacking in her outfit choice today.

{Real}

This picture is of the date night Ian prepared for me for Valentine’s Day. We shipped the kids off to Auntie and he whipped up a steak about the size of my head and we enjoyed the most relaxed, quiet dinner since I can remember. Maybe this fits better under ‘happy’.

There is nothing like processing meat from a hunt to make you face the reality of what it really means to eat meat. Ian and Bruce share a passion for hunting. Bruce is showing Ian how to make sausages with his fancy Cabela’s meat grinder.

And for the most real post I could find that is extremely appropriate for International Women’s Day – regardless of whether you are a mother or not. With all these rather tedious conversations trying to justify women breastfeeding in public. Let’s just ask the most powerful woman of all time.

This first one is a beautiful icon, no? A black -or at least darker-skinned Madonna. Beautiful.

Yes, Mary is squirting St. Bernard with her breastmilk.