momstory

Meet Canadian mom Kristen living in Las Vegas

Hello!  My name is Kirsten and I am a Canadian living in Las Vegas with my husband and three girls.  Sophie is twelve years old, Isabella is ten, and Caroline is seven.  They attend local public schools and are involved in many extracurricular activities, so this is a busy time of life for our family.  I feel fortunate to be able to stay home with them.

I love to write and enjoy keeping a blog at tollipop.  I also have an Etsy shop where I sell my drawings of quiet, wistful girls.  Having this creative outlet, in addition to the joys and challenges of a marriage and family, add up to a life for which I am very grateful.  

What kind of house do you live in, are you and the kids happy here or is there anything you all terribly miss …?

We live in a neighborhood where one home looks like all the other homes.  When we first moved here, it seemed I would get lost all the time because everything looked the same.  But I love our house.  On the inside it seems like our special world: cozy, interesting, and filled with love.

Do you like to spend time on decorating your home and the children’s room?


Decorating my home does interest me, but I get so easily caught up in other demands that it sometimes seems the way my house looks in my mind is more delightful than it may actually be in real life.  Nevertheless, if you were to ask me what "effect" I am trying to create in my home, I would say I hope it feels welcoming, with lots of comfortable corners for reading, making things, and being together.  I like the feeling of browsing through an attic or an old, secondhand bookstore...hopefully my home is not as dusty as that, but I try to create many interesting places for the eye to wander.  My children often bring home little discoveries from nature, and I love displaying these around the house.


What are your children’s favorite items in your house?


We do not have a cable connection in our home, so we use our television only to watch the occasional weekend movie.  Also, I deny my children video games and most other forms of electronic media, making me one of the most inhumane mothers on this planet.  :)  As a result, my children are very connected to books, art supplies, and imaginary games.  I love listening to them play in their bedrooms, especially when my eldest daughter takes time to be a part of my youngest daughter's games.  Their happiness seems to fill the house.

They also love their hamsters, but wish we would get a dog.

What's it like to raise a child in your town?

Raising children in Las Vegas has been a wonderful experience for me.  I sometimes hear negative opinions about our schooling system, but my impression is there are great opportunities to pursue an education here.  The cultural opportunities are also here if you look for them.  We are fortunate to have some of the best music teachers I could ever imagine.  We live within walking distance of an excellent library.  There are also many places to get frozen yogurt!  The amazing desert is a ten minute drive from our house and although the weather is sweltering for about five months of the year, the rest of the time it is beautiful and we are often outdoors.  We have many wonderful friends and family in this town, so although I grew up somewhere very different, I am happy to call this place home.


Can you mention some of your ‘how-to-raise-your-kid’ values?

One important value that has guided me in raising my children is simply to be with them.  I spend a lot of time with my girls and that seems to translate into a natural respect on their part for my role as a mother.  I'm quite sure they feel how much we as parents love and enjoy their company.  I hope the love in our home feels like a natural extension of God's love, and we have many interesting conversations about making sense of life from a spiritual perspective.  
I also try to avoid comparisons in our family.  Each daughter has her own path and I never want one girl to feel she is somehow "more than" or "less than" the other girls.  I think it becomes clear, as children grow older, that they "shine" in different areas.  I try to foster an atmosphere where my children celebrate each other's accomplishments with genuine joy, since they know their interests and abilities are also important.

What kind of DIY projects do you like to do with your children?  


We are working on a hand stitched advent calendar...hopefully it will be ready by next Christmas!  I often wish we had more time for creating things.  I do keep a well stocked shelf of art supplies in the girls' bedroom and they are always making things for me to hang up around the house. 


How do you like to celebrate birthdays and other special days in your house?

I like to keep celebrations simple, creative,  and inexpensive.  I also love involving my girls in the planning and execution of these events.

What kind of sports do your children like to do and are you very involved?

We do a lot of swimming, bike riding, hiking, and my eldest daughter just started playing volleyball.  For myself, I find it very important to get out and exercise several times a week.  I love to run and ride my bike...it always helps to clear my mind and makes me feel calmer and more balanced.

Are there musical instruments in your house?

Yes, we seem to spend a lot of time on musical pursuits.  Sophie plays the piano, Isabella the violin, and Caroline is very pleased to have a cello that matches her hair.  Our musical journey requires a great deal of work, but it also offers many joyful moments.  It truly is a wonder to watch my girls reach such a beautiful level of expression with their music.

I love to have music playing in our home as often as possible.  Favorite composers include Bach and Vivaldi, favorite instruments include cello and voice.  I also love folk music and my children look to my husband to keep them informed on more popular genres of music.

What are all time favorite books for the children?

We love to read in this family.  And I love to read to my girls.  I try to read them a bedtime story every night...even when it is very late I will go in there and read as they are falling asleep.  It's one of my favorite times of the day.

Some books we enjoy: The Little House series, the Burgess Bedtime Story series, the Frances books (by Russell and Lillian Hoban), The Hundred Dresses, The Country Bunny,  Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, fairy tales, folk tales, poetry, myths, stories from The Book of Mormon and The Bible. 

How would you describe a perfect day with your children?

A perfect day would include a morning hike on the red rocks of the desert, a wonderful fruit salad for breakfast that someone else cut up for me, a trip to the library, the pet store, and the international market for Haribo treats, and snuggling up on the couch that evening to watch a movie together with lots of pillows and popcorn.
But even better than that would be to spend a summer day with my family in my hometown of Vernon, British Columbia.  We would spend the entire day at the lake, beginning with a morning swim when we had the clean, clear water all to ourselves.  We would have a picnic basket filled with many good things to eat.  Old Dutch potato chips.  German deli sausages.  Tons of local fruit, the best in the world: cherries, strawberries, apples, peaches, pears...

I would have a great book to read.  My husband would take the girls for a discovery hike.  The sun would feel so lovely, the air would smell so good...

Are you a ‘cook’ or ‘food’ lover or both?


We love to cook and we love to eat.  The girls enjoy working in the kitchen with me.  My husband is also adept at making amazing bread and pizzas.  Although we are very busy during the week, I feel it is important to sit down and enjoy an evening meal together.  When this happens (not as often as I would like), we set a simple, lovely table with music, candlelight, and fresh clippings of leaves or flowers from outdoors.  I think it's nice to make every meal seem special.

 

Thank you Kristen!

..tollipop..

..Etsy shop..

Meet American mom Brooke living in Dallas

I’m Brooke Fish, a stay at home mommy of two. My husband and I live in Dallas, Texas with our amazing boys. Together we run a small advertising/editorial photography business. I do some styling here and there for the business, but mostly do the books. It’s my husband who gets to do all the creative stuff day in and day out, which is why I started my craft blog, Pure and Noble.

 

What kind of house do you live in, are you and the kids happy here or is there anything you all terribly miss …?

We live in a small traditional1950’s home about 15 minutes from downtown Dallas. A lot of our friends live within a mile of us and that is a ton of fun.  But we also miss living in our old apartment where we could walk to local shops and restaurants and hop on the hike and bike trail that was basically in our back yard!

 


Do you like to spend time on decorating your home and the children’s room? 

I absolutely love decorating our home.  I’m changing things up all the time and making new stuff here and there. Because my husband is a photographer, I get a lot of really cool prints to put throughout the house and lots of great photos of the kids. It’s funny, my husband and I have a pretty different design aesthetic so decorating can be tough sometimes. He prefers clean and modern and I like more of a bohemian modern style. We try to find a happy medium. I love rearranging things too; it gives the room a completely different feel. The kids’ rooms are a bit of a challenge for me because I’m a bit of a neat freak. I have to live with the reality that I have two boys that are into super heroes and leave their toys everywhere. I try to make toys as accessible as possible and clean up a speedy process.

 

Where do you look for interior inspiration, favorite magazines, websites, blogs?

I’m kind of addicted to blogs. In fact, my best friend sent me your Bloesem blog a few years back and it’s what started my addiction. I’m consistently amazed by the amount of creativity out there. I also love magazines and books on interior decorating. I’m a bit heart broken that Domino is gone. I haven’t found anything to really replace it, accept maybe flickr. I can be on the computer for hours looking at photos of people’s homes and interiors. But, there is something so relaxing and serene about flipping through the pages of a magazine and being able to tear out pages that inspire. My husband’s work also inspires me. His use of color and his eye for composition blows me away.

 

What are your children’s favorite items in your house? 

Their bathtub and our bed. They love to wrestle their daddy on our bed and jump around there too. It’s pretty much an indoor jungle-gym for the boys.

 

What's it like to raise a child in your town?

It can be really hard to raise children in Dallas.  There is such a focus on materialism and status. We work very hard on keeping our children grounded and in the real world.

 

Who do you consider is a good example for your children?

Christ is the center of our home and really the only example we point our kids to.

 
 

What is your idea of a perfect day with your children?

A perfect day for me would be sleeping in late (my oldest wakes up WAY too early) and having pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast with a fresh cup of French press coffee. If it’s a hot summer day, we’d play outside in our kiddie pool or sprinkler with friends and then have a picnic. This of coarse is followed by naps for the boys while I go to estate sales and thrift stores. And then we’d end our day with a nice quiet date night with my husband. Mexican food (Tex-Mex) and a margarita for sure.


Can you mention some of your ‘how-to-raise-your-kid’ values?

We teach our boys first-time obedience; to love, honor and respect others and to treat others as they would want to be treated. We also ask that our boys treat one another as forever bothers and not temporary friends.  We want them to cherish and respect one another, knowing that they will be brothers forever and hopefully forever friends. We reward good deeds with smiley faces on our chalkboard in the kitchen. If he gets 7 smiley faces, he gets to pick something special to do with his Daddy. We try not to reward with food.

 

Are you a crafter or DIY person?

I’m a bit of both, but I’m trying to get into kids crafts now that the boys are getting a bit older and I have less time for big projects. I love to sew, but haven’t quite figured out how to get my boys involved. They usually color or go into our long hallway for car races or golf (which my youngest calls hockey!) 

 

What do you do with all the projects your children made at home or in school?

We have family that lives out of state, so I try and keep them connected by sending them projects and paintings from time to time. We recently started sending a small journal back and forth with my husband’s Grandma that include activities we have done that week. Then she keeps it for a week and journal’s what she’s done, including drawings of her activities. My oldest is learning to write, so this really helps him practice his letters. All of the school stuff gets stored in a box for the boys to have once they have children.

 

Any nice decoration ideas how to hang them, keep them or use them as presents?

We have two big metal memo boards from Ikea in our oldest’s bedroom along with a row of clipboards on one wall. This allows us to change artwork in and out without putting holes in the walls. We also use the clipboards for his homework like sight words and anything specific he’s learning about that month.  Right now it’s space! 

 

What are favorite games in your home?

Does fighting bad guys and wrestling count as games? We also love indoor golf, Connect Four, Hungry Hungry Hippo, Hop Scotch and anything on the wii.

What are all time favorite books for the children?

Anything by Mo Willems. He’s so simple and funny. And his use of color is inspirational.

 

How do you prepare for a trip, any useful tips?

I like going through a typical day in my mind and preparing a list while doing so.  This helps me think through what we do on a daily basis and prevents me from leaving anything basic behind such as diapers, “bookies” (blankets), sound machines, nightlights and favorite books, toys and music. My kids sleep habits are pretty high maintenance (self created, I know) and highly energy dependant. Sigh.

 

What place do your children love to go to?

Because we have family out of state, we do a lot of road trips. Thirteen hours in a car with two children under 4 can be a challenge. Sometimes we break the trip up and stay in a hotel to let the boys play and swim. My all time favorite gift and family photo is from one of our stays at a hotel in Kansas City. We were having breakfast in the hotel room and my husband broke out the camera. I never knew a generic hotel room could be so beautiful! He gave me a framed print for Mother’s Day last year. It now hangs in our living room. I love it!

..Pure and Noble..

..Fishfotography..

Image above :: the Fish family Christmas card ... super I (irene) love it! Thanks Brooke for this fun interview.