The Weekend Before Canada Day

 

Happy Monday everyone! Tomorrow is Canada Day and I am sure that a lot of people actually took today off! I actually have to make this post pretty quick because we have a busier day then normal ahead of us! While tomorrow is Canada Day, in our village we celebrate a day early! Tonight is our BBQ, parade, party and fireworks! I can’t wait! While our town is small, it has HUGE Canadian spirit and our party is always legendary.

This weekend started out with a our traditional pizza for supper and then movie! Since Sam is still sleeping in our room and it doesn’t have a way for us to watch him while he sleeps in there, we opted to watch the movie in our room! We decided to rent The Monuments Men! Before the movie was even half over, Ryan was beside me snoring away! I actually fought to stay awake but was able to keep my eyes open till the end! It was a pretty good movie!

Saturday we actually “slept in” which means 7 AM for us! Ha ha! But we all got ready, grabbed breakfast on the road and then went for our annual trip to the strawberry patch to pick our berries! The forecast was calling for a very hot day so we wanted to get this done as early as possible! I was a little worried about how long it would take us to pick our three baskets, as I had heard the berries were small and not as plentiful this year after a hard winter. Well that was not the case for the patch we were in! They placed Ryan and I in one row and we picked the same place but from either side. We only picked for about 20 minutes and we had all 3 baskets overflowing! The were so many berries!

It was Sam’s first experience strawberry picking and he just sat in his stroller the whole time in the shade! I am sure next year will be much more difficult! Ha ha!

Since we were over in the Ontario side and close by to a couple of our best friends, we stopped by for a quick visit with Rebekka and Josh! We had a great visit under the shade! Now that the ferry is open it is so fast to drive over to see them and I am so looking forward to lots of visits this summer!

We hopped the ferry, cleaned up, fed Sam and then headed back on the road! It was only a short drive to a special birthday for little Mason! The adorable 1 year old had all his buddies over to help him celebrate his birthday! We had a delicious BBQ supper, snacks and of course cupcakes! There are a lot of little boys who were born to friends of Ryan and we all were laughing and imagining what life is going to be like in about 13 years! There are literally 7 little boys (including Sam) that are between the ages of 0-2, it is going to be so fun to watch them all together in years to come!

After such a busy day we were glad for our quiet night at home!

Sunday morning I left my boys at home and met two friends for an early breakfast! Amanda and Candace have been friends of mine for YEARS and I am so glad that we always try and make time in our busy lives to get together! It is always as if no time has passed and we can chat for hours! Unfortunately, I had to get back to a hungry baby but it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning!

“Oh dear, Daddy dressed me!”

The rest of the day we puttered away at things around the house! Ryan got his truck washed and I worked on cleaning my strawberries so that they are ready to be made into jam today!

We took a few hours yesterday afternoon to join other Canada Day Committee members to set up for the big festivities today!

The rest of the afternoon we relaxed, cooked a BBQ supper and got ready for a busy week ahead! 

How was your weekend?

xo

The Haircut That Never Was

 

Happy Friday everyone! I hope your week has been wonderful! Honestly, this hasn’t been the best of weeks over here in Mommy-land! I think Sam might be going through his “3 month” growth spurt a week early. Unfortunately, it also landed on week where he was away from the house a lot as we were at a wake and funeral this week. I wish I could say that it went smoothly but in reality, it was a disaster! Sam and I were seated in the church for the funeral service and he instantly started crying! I ended up missing the whole thing as I was trying to soothe my poor growing boy.

I’ve noticed during this growth spurt that Sam is really starting to move and grab things with his hands. One of his most favorite things to grasp, especially while nursing…my hair! Ouch!

It had me thinking about the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I’m not one too spend a lot of money on my hair. I don’t color my hair so usually I only visit the hairdressers for a trim once every few months. I booked my hair appointment about 3 weeks before I was due to have the baby. I figured, one last trim before I have a baby as I wasn’t sure when I would be able to get there again.

Here’s the thing about pregnancy and hormones, it can make your mind wander and think crazy things. Maybe it was the extra time I had off or maybe it was the fact that my life was changing so drastically soon why not do the same with my hairstyle! I had decided I was going to chop off my hair!

For 2 days I looked up hairstyles and decided on a cute bob! I had pictures ready and printed for my appointment!

It wasn’t the first time I had cut my hair this length. A few years ago I decided to grow out my locks and donate it to Angel Hair which is a Canadian company that makes wigs for those in need. It was a huge change as I had never had hair that short in my life! But there was something so freeing about just making such a big change.

My hairdresser also happens to be a friend of mine and the good thing is that she is very honest with me when she thinks something wouldn’t look right. She saves me from having some disaster of a haircut. That day, 3 weeks before my due date, I waddled my large pregnant bum into her hair salon with my printout of hairstyles in my hand. Knowing the delegate condition I was in my hairdresser listened kindly as I explained I wanted to chop off my hair. She then proceeded to tell me that although I would look great with a shorter haircut, she was hoping to convince me to hold off till a few months after the baby.

At first I was taken aback and slightly insulted that she would even consider talking me out of my haircut. But I took her advice and we just did a trim.

Now? O…M…G am I ever thankful that I never cut my hair that day! I would have been SO annoyed if I couldn’t have pulled my hair out of my face during labour and delivery. On sleepless nights and restless days I couldn’t imagine having to put any effort into my hair! It’s nice to be able to throw it up and out of the way in a high bun or ponytail! My hair is the last thing that I even want to think about!

Now that the hormones have settled down (a little, ha ha!) I have seen the light and how silly it would have been to cut my hair! It would have been awful to deal with a short hairstyle that I actually had to put effort into blow drying. Now that Sam has starting grabbing at my hair I am even more glad to be able to put it up and out of his way. The idea of a shorter hairstyle is still on my mind but I am putting it off until we are fully in our grove and have a routine. In the meantime you’ll find me rocking the Mommy pony!  

Happy Friday!

xo

Part Time Hippy

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! We got drenched yesterday with a monsoon of a rain! Our basement hasn’t had a problem with rain since before we re-did the basement! Every spring the basement walls have been able to handle all the snow melting. Yesterday Sam and I were at a wake most of the day and Ryan joined us later. When we got home last night just after 9 we decided to check the basement after a few other people reported problems on Facebook. Sure enough, water all over the basement floor! Too much rain!

I was thinking the other day on some of my ecological decisions of my past, I was no David Suzuki. I only started recycling because our municipality made us, I always left the water running while brushing my teeth and would throw out perfectly good pieces of paper! That has seemed to have a slight change though. Now I’m a breastfeeding, baby wearing, sometimes co-sleeping and clothing diapering Momma.

I knew that breastfeeding was the most recommended form of nutrition for a little one. My doctor and the hospital that I delivered at are huge advocates to breastfeeding. I said from day one, I’ll give it a try and if it doesn’t work out then I’m O.K with formula feeding my baby. Thankfully, it came pretty easy to Sam and I and now I am passionate about continuing on. My mind revolves around how to keep my supply up, how to pump and making sure he gets what he needs. It’s not “so much easier” then formula feeding! It takes work, patience, pain tolerance and a lot of trial and error. While I love breastfeeding I will not be one of those people who allow my 3-4 year old to latch on for a snack! I’m giving my boy till he’s a year old and then I’m closed for business!

I love my son but before him and I was one of the least cuddly things on the planet. As a kid myself, I hated to snuggle and be held! I would even always rather play with an infant then sit and hold a newborn. That all changed when Sam was born. I love the closeness that I feel when he is snuggled up on my chest. I love that when he is a cranky pants, getting him snuggle up to me will instantly sooth him. Truthfully, there are times where the only way I can get something done is if I am wearing him. I knew that people used a carrier when they were out and about! What I didn’t realize was how many people wore their kids even around the house so that their hands would be free! There is this whole movement on social media for “baby wearing”. This is a little embarrassing to admit but I’ve even managed to use the bathroom while having Sam attached to me. As gross as it is, the risk of waking him was far worse then the loss of my dignity.

See that face? That is the face of a Momma whos baby is going through a growth spurt and only wants to be held!

Co-sleeping is said to “spoil” a baby and has it’s own risks if not done right. I swore up and down that my baby would never sleep in bed with me! But getting screamed at by your newborn for 2 hours straight…sometimes you just have to give. You will do anything at some point for 15 minutes of sleep and if that means baby sleeping with you, then so be it! After it becomes a luxury instead of a necessity! Sam doesn’t need to sleep in bed with me but I still find that I love cuddling up to him. Sam will easily sleep in his crib, playpen and will even sooth himself but I still lay down with him at times in bed. He’s also my “headache” because no one is going to get freaky with a baby lying between you!

When I was about 7 months pregnant I got the genius idea that we should buy some cloth diapers. Ryan thought I was losing my mind but I was insistent and purchased some. Of course for the first month of Sam’s life they sat and collected dust. One day we were almost out of size 1 diapers and needed to run to the store (which takes 30 minutes to get there) and neither of us wanted to do so. Out of necessity I started using the cloth diapers that evening and haven’t looked back! I’m a part time clother because there is NO WAY I am waking my kid in the middle of the night just to change his wet diaper. There is also no way I am going to let a cloth diaper fester in the bottom of my diaper bag either when we are out. But when we are at home? You better bet that Sam has a fluffy bum! It’s too easy now because breastmilk poop is water soluble so literally all I do is stick em’ in the wash. It’s a lazy woman’s guide to cloth diapers. So while I could sit hear and preach to you all how I’m not filling up landfills with my share of dirty diapers, in truth I’m just cheap and I don’t want to take that hour out of my day to pick some up.

Before I had a baby I thought that I had it all figured out. I knew what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it and when I wanted to do it. You swear up and down that you aren’t going to be a certain way but when the baby comes that all gets thrown out the window! I never thought when I had a baby that the above things would become the norm for me. It’s easier to think about what kind of Mom you will be then execute that plan. In truth you need to figure out what works for you instead of trying to match up to the ideal in your head. While I wouldn’t fully throw myself into the “hippy” mom category, I am happy with the things that I do now and will probably continue to adjust as I learn more and more about the kind of Mom I am!

Happy Wednesday! 

xo

Baby Shower and Celebrating A 97th Birthday

 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope your weekends were great! Ours certainly was and it was so busy that it flew by! Blinked and now it’s over!

Ryan and I started off our weekend by doing our June date! There was no way we were going to miss this month! Ha ha! We also had to give Sam his bath on Friday. Bath time has sort of become Ryan’s time with Sam. I love to sit back and watch them interact. Seeing him hold that little naked bum melts my heart everytime!

Saturday morning Sam and I were off to work for our LAST Saturday work shift! Somehow knowing it was the last Saturday of the summer that I had to work made me less grumpy about waking up early on Saturday morning! Thankfully the morning passed quickly!

After work Sam and I picked up my Mom and we headed to the baby shower of cousin and long time friend Shannon. She and her husband Casey are expecting their baby girl in August! We can’t wait to meet her!

The hostess Stacy having a cuddle with Sam!

Sunday morning we all headed to church and then had a relaxing lunch at my parents before we packed up to head to a 97th birthday party for my Aunt Elaine! My Aunt Elaine was a very important figure in my life growing up and I was excited to celebrate this awesome lady! It was also her first time meeting Samuel!

Grandma with our newest little family member, Emily! Aunt Elaine with Sam! It amazes me how these wonderful ladies held and handled these babies like it was nothing! I guess you never lose that maternal instinct! P.S – Don’t I have amazing genes?

Cutting her birthday cake!

Dad meeting sweet baby Emily!

Sam meeting his cousins Matthew and Morgan!

I was especially looking forward to meeting my newest cousin Emily as well! My cousin Sheila and were pregnant at the same time and we both didn’t know what we were having! It has been great to go through my pregnancy with such an amazing girl! I look forward to seeing Sam and Emily interact at future family functions!

The first cousin selfie for these two!

It was a great afternoon with so many family members celebrating a wonderful woman! Sam got to meet many family members for the very first time.

When we got home we all got ready for bed and crashed after such a busy weekend! It passed by way too quickly but it was filled with so many great memories!

How was your weekend?

xo

2014 Year of Dates - May

 

I have sad news…while I loved what was planned for our May date, I have to say that in 1 year and 5 months, this was our first date where we

FAILED!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly…I am sad to say that this was the first time since we began our dates that we were not able to complete a date within the month that it was planned. We were close! We had great plans to have this done for the last weekend of May and certain circumstances arose that prevented us from doing it. We actually even had it mostly done in May but it wasn’t completed until June 2…SO CLOSE! But, I figured I would share what we did with you all anyways! 

Wow, that’s a horrible picture! Ha ha! It says, “It’s hard to believe that it’s May…As I am writing this in December of last year I can feel our baby kicking me. It’s crazy to think that by the time we open this we will have our baby and hopefully starting to become adjusted to parenthood.

It’s hard to guess what our new life is like so to be safe I think it’s best if we stay at home together.

Let’s go through some cooking websites, books or magazines and together pick out a recipe that we have never tried!

Let’s go get the ingredients and make the meal together! We can sit down and enjoy our efforts and see if we like this new recipe! How about some homemade hot fudge sundaes for dessert?

As Lindsay is doing the dishes, Ryan needs to check out PPV movie selections! After he selects one, we will snuggle into bed together and try not to fall asleep during the movie!

P.S

This is also our anniversary month! Happy 2nd Anniversary Love! I can’t imagine life without you! You are my best friend, my everything! xo”

I have to give Ry credit, he dove in head first through some of my cookbooks to find a recipe! We marked the ones we thought looked interesting and finally decided on one from The Pioneer Woman’s Cookbook!

Of course Ryan and I are always budget conscious and this is a great recipe because it doesn’t have too many ingredients! It’s called Ranch Style Chicken!

Here are a few of the ingredients…(Yes I used regular mustard instead of Dijon! We both aren’t fans of Dijon!) 

It was also SUPER easy and fast to make! 

The sauce all ready to go! Looking kind of funky!

We marinated our meat for 30 hours! Which I highly recommend because the meat was so juicy and SO flavourful!

We fired up our BBQ and got to work! It was such a beautiful evening and we both enjoyed a couple drinks while we were waiting for it to cook!

We had planned on eating outside and even had the patio table all set up and then it started to rain! So last minute we moved everything inside! Talk about adding another hit to our ego…first we couldn’t complete the date in May and now we were getting rained out! haha!

I gotta tell ya, this was SO good! We just ate it with potatoes and some bread but it would be so good as a form of chicken burger as well! We enjoyed this recipe so much in fact that it is now found a permanent spot on our summer meal plan!

We did settle into bed afterwards with a movie but were unsuccessful about staying up! Ha ha!

I can’t lie, I am SO disappointment that we failed at completing this date in the month of May. The only thing that made me feel slightly better is that we did actually celebrate our anniversary by going out to a special dinner (Sam too) together so it feels like we did take special time out of the month to be with one another. But, we still didn’t do this date in the correct month. I remember the sense of disappointment as the date of June 1st rolled around and am now even more determined to not let it happen to the rest of our dates for the rest of the year!

Happy Friday!

xo  

House Rules

 

Every household is different and with each home comes their own set of rules. I know as a kid we had some in our home. As Ryan and I have grown as a couple so has different traditions and house rules of our own. We have also recently talked about different things that we want to continue to do and start now that we have a child. Here are a few of ours!

Eating Dinner At The Table

Ok, I know this one is the same for a lot of people! But to me, this one is so important! As a kid growing up on a busy farm, it would usually just be my brother and I eating supper as our father would usually be working late and Mom would wait to eat with him. So, Jared and I were allowed to take our suppers downstairs and eat it in front of the television. While it was great as a kid to be able to do that, now as an adult I enjoy that time at the table with my husband. It’s something we started right away when we began eating together and will continue with Sam.

No Phones At The Table

Speaking of eating at the table, it’s easy to realize that we live in a world of technology. When Ryan and I first got our iPhones we were obsessed! We were looking at them all the time! It was so bad that there would be zero conversation at the table! One day we agreed that we would no longer keep our phones at the table and it has greatly improved our communication!

Dishes Are Done Right Away

There is not much more that bothers me then going to bed with dirty dishes! This one took Ryan a little getting use to but then he realized if we do it together, cleaning up after supper doesn’t take that long!

No Making The Bed On Sundays

If there is one house chore that Ryan hates it would be making the bed! 9 times out of 10 he complains while making the bed (we do it together and takes all of 30 seconds ha ha!) and always tries to get out of it! One Sunday morning as Ryan was trying to get out of making the bed he said “we shouldn’t make the bed because it’s Sunday”. I kind stopped and thought about it. I told him that if he agreed to never complain about making the bed any other day, we wouldn’t on Sundays. It stuck and now it’s a day that I look forward to as well. Later I also added on no laundry on Sundays either! I think it will be fun for kids to participate in this house rule as well!

Friday Night Pizza Night and Hopefully One Day Movie Night

This one you all have heard before, every Friday night we have pizza for supper! Growing up we always had spaghetti every Friday! We also considered Fridays to be our “Movie Night In Beechgrove” night! As a kid I always looked forward to Fridays knowing that we would get to rent a movie and have a treat while watching it together as a family. While Ryan and I rarely get a chance to have a movie every Friday, we do hope to reintroduce this tradition to our family.

Of course I could add on the normal, Mind Your Manners, No Hitting or Yelling, Pick Up After Yourself but these are just an example of some of the special rules things that we do in our household. What are some your house rules? 

xo

Fathers Day Weekend 2014

 

Happy Monday! I hope that everyone’s weekend was as wonderful as ours! Now that I have a little one of my own Father’s day has a whole new meaning to me and to Ryan. Sam is so lucky to have such amazing men in his life and those influences deserved to be celebrated this weekend!

The weekend started out on Friday with a glorious thunder and lightening storm! There is not much that I love more then sitting on my rocking chair under the porch watching a storm roll in. I decided to take take Sam out with me so that he could watch his first storm with me!

I fed Sam and then actually left home to go to book club! It was one of the longest periods without Sam and thankfully my group of friends at book club made it easy for me! Between the book discussion, yummy snacks and more chit chat, the evening flew by! By the time I got home Sam had been sleeping since I fed him at 6:30 and didn’t wake until 5 the next morning!

Oh and this was the book we were discussing!

Saturday morning all three of us were up early and hit the road! We had some breakfast at the restaurant in the next town and then attended a great car seat clinic! After the police checked our carseat and gave us the O.K, we headed to visit Sam’s Grandpa/Ry’s Dad to wish him a happy father’s day! Sam was REALLY grumpy so unfortunately we couldn’t stay long!

Picture taken from Eugene’s FB.

When we got home I tried to settle an upset Sam and Ryan got ready to go for a round of golf! When I asked him what he wanted to do for Father’s day he immediately said, “Golf!”

Sam and I had a quiet evening at home getting things ready for the next day and were in bed with a movie nice and early!

Sunday morning I set my alarm early so that I could get up while everyone else was asleep to make Ryan breakfast in bed!

Ryan enjoyed breakfast and Sam slept away beside us in his playpen! Ryan went ahead a opened his fathers day gift! It was a new Bluejays shirt, hat and a matching sleeper for Sam and this special keepsake…

We all got ready for church and of course I had to dress Sam in his “I Love Daddy shirt”!

After church my Mom and I had decided that instead of taking the boys to a busy restaurant that we would make them something to eat at home! So, we fired up the BBQ and had hamburgers with all the fixings! It was a beautiful afternoon to be sitting by the pool just relaxing and sipping on some drinks!

The sun was nice and warm and so was the pool so we decided to take a dip! We had bought Sam a special whale to swim in but we were hesitant to use it because he hates his baths so much! However, we wanted to take him for his first swim so we gave it a try and HE LOVED IT! He sat, relaxed and kicked his feet for over an hour in the pool! It’s the perfect little floaty for him too because of the shade! We are so happy he loved the pool and Ryan and I can’t wait to take him for more swims now!

After such a busy day Sam was exhausted and fell hard into a deep sleep! Ryan and I took that opportunity to turn on a movie on Netflix and watch the whole thing without having to pause it!

It was a great weekend celebrating the special men in our lives and in Sam’s life! We are so blessed to have such good and strong men in his life that can help him grow into the wonderful man I hope he will be one day! I think Ryan really enjoyed his day being with Sam! Throughout the whole day he was the one to hold him the most and I could tell he was trying to soak up the memories of his first Father’s Day!

How was your weekend?

xo

A Few Things On Friday!

 

Happy Friday everyone! It is seriously the most perfect day to be a duck! It has been raining for almost 3 days straight! Things were looking a little dry around here and we were all glad to see a little rain!

My life lately revolves around baby but that’s just my life now! I am loving being a Mommy and I can already tell this will be one of the best summers of my life. I also wanted to share with you all some other things worth noting as of lately.

1. Before Sam was born I made a “Meals After Baby” plan which consisted of 6 weeks worth of dinners planned. Ryan and I took the big grocery trip and then I spent one whole day chopping and prepping the food! I’m not much of a freezer meal person but I wanted to go ahead and make life easy after baby by having the meat chopped/marinated/etc and all of the supper ingredients (aka: gravies, pasta noodles, rice and etc) available as well. That way, all we would need is fresh things to fill our fridge!

We didn’t touch this food until after Sam arrived and honestly, it worked out great! It made life so simple because everything was prepped all I had to do was cook it. The grocery items I’d need for the week made shopping with baby quick and easy!

This worked out so well that I did it again! Yesterday Sam and I loaded up the car with a massive grocery list and shopped for 6 weeks worth of food for the freezer! We now have about 2 months of meat prepped, labeled and ready! It was ALOT of work I am so looking forward to the ease that it will bring!

Ready to hit the road!

2. Now that I am over 2 months post baby my thoughts about post baby body are starting to surface. Around week 7 I tried working out everyday that week and had an unexpected surprise. One night I woke to feed Sam and as I was standing changing his bum, I peed myself! Wish I was joking…

I took a little break from the hard core workouts and focused more on what I was eating and light exercises. Thankfully a few weeks later I am able to control myself again (TMI?) ha ha! I am dying to try out my jogging stroller for actual running!

3. There is a big problem about this whole “watching what I eat” thing…these candies!

As a little “thank you” to the staff at the hospital where Sam was born, I had made up jars of candy with a small note of appreciation! They were super simple to make (mason jar, candy, ribbon and tag!) but everyone was delighted to have the nice token from us.

When I was making up the jars I had realized I had bought WAY too much candy but I just threw the leftovers in a bag and put it in the cupboard. 2 months later and I am STILL snacking on these treats! It is SO easy to just grab a one when I want a little something sweet which is like 50 times a day! Eek!

4. The one thing that I have been good at lately is reading a lot! I have started a new routine when I am nursing Sam. I use to do it in front of the T.V but I started to get sick of daytime TV. I began nursing him upstairs in the nursery in my comfy glider. To help pass the time I started reading on my Kindle. It’s a nice lightweight device to use to read and time flies by! The best part is that I can easily get lots of reading done which I love! I was able to quickly read our last book club selection!

5. Speaking of book club, tonight we have a meeting and I will be attending solo. I have to admit, I am slightly worried. Ryan is an excellent father but because it is our busy work season he hasn’t had a lot of time with Sam in the early evenings, when he happens to be at his most grumpy! He hasn’t even given Sam a bath by himself yet. Tonight, Ryan is on his own to bathe, feed and put Sam down to bed. I am SO looking forward to some snacks and girl time at book club but I’d be lying if I said I won’t be spending half the time checking my phone to make sure Ryan hasn’t texted me an S.O.S message!

Happy Friday!

xo