Friday's Five

Ya for a weekend without any commitments, aside from gymnastics that is! Yes, you bet we will get some work done around the house, but you can also bet that we will not feel any rush in getting it done!! Oh and it's supposed to rain all weekend!

I do need to go back to Costco to pick up the canvas of Emilya up for our bedroom, and then I am considering a little shopping trip - kids free perhaps? What can I say it has been a long week and this mama needs a break away. 

Noah has been totally acting out as a two year old this week, pretty much just being defiant and doing what he knows he shouldn't do, therefore this mama's patience is shot! He was also waking up at 6 AM, so I am sure that attributed to the problem, so after a big discussion last night, he was informed that if it is still dark outside than he can't get up yet and I am happy to report we had a normal wake up time and so far (knock on wood) we are having a much better day!! 

Yesterday we had his 2nd Music in Motion class and well, I am thinking it went better than that first class but I wasn't there to truly compare. We had some tears, a whole lot of "I'm ready to go home" and a little boy that just wanted his mama to be with him. We stuck it out, I managed to sneak away
from him a few times, but over all he just isn't comfortable with the class yet! I know a lot of people's approach is to just rip off the bandaid and let him cry it out for the class, but that's not my approach. I want him to be comfortable and yes, the ultimate goal is to have him be in the class without me, but it's not something he HAS to do at this point! Not to mention there are 3/10 kids without their parent, so 7 other parents are in there with thier kids too. He is only 2 and he is fine with leaving me for other things, but he's just not comfortable there yet. I signed him up for the class to enjoy it, not to freak him out and have a negative experience. 

Remember how I said I sorted through the kids clothes and got their drawers done? Well looks like I need to do it again for BOTH kids! Emilya needs her 9 month sleepers, because the little miss is long and 6 months are getting to short, everything else is pretty much fine,  but if I'm pulling 9 month sleepers, you bet I'm pulling 9 month everything. And Mr. Noah needs pants... 4T, you know the size I suspected he would need? Well I was actually right and now need to pull out all his 3T pants and pjs. The 4T's are too big, but 3T's are too short - they should really make half sizes! 

Weekend Rewind - Emilya's Baptism

Thanks to technical issues, thus post is two days late, but better late than never right??

Our weekend was pretty much amazing! Crazy busy, but celebrating our little girl made all the hard work worthwhile!

We will rewind all the way to Thursday! M and I took Emilya to get her ear moulds made for her hearing aid and just got more information overall. It is going to be quite the learning curve ahead of us, so any info given to us at this point is pretty much gold in our eyes. Em did really well for that appointment, but we didn't get out of there until 12 and our next appointment we couldn't go to until after 1, so we decided to hit up the mall for some lunch and to find M a new dress shirt. It was a nice little date, something we don't do very often and Em was a dream baby. We got M a new shirt and a new tie and then headed across London to the Childrens Hospital to pick up a req for the proper testing for Emilya. Long story short, the intern who dictated the ENT's letter wrote the wrong tests, and had I not questioned the testing specifically during the appointment, then she would have needed blood work done twice. I was not a happy mama, especially when the receptionist at the doctors office pulled the "well if it was my child, I would do the blood work" instead of calling the ENT's office to clarify. So I called the ENT to clarify and therefore pic up the proper req. So she did her urine test while we were at the hospital, as well as her ECG. Both tests she did with no problems, flashing smiles at everyone she came across. Like I said - dream baby with no tears all day except for the last 10 minutes on the way home.

On our way out, we decided to pop up to the maternity ward to see if the nurses we had were working and sure enough they both were! Emilya loved them! Then we headed to Costco quickly and then home. We had dinner at the farm, as well as picked up Noah. 

Noah had his first Music In Motion class - that I missed, but Grandma took him and apparently it was a bit of a crazy class. So hopefully this week goes a bit better, but he seemed to like it!

Thursday night I had "Book club". I didnt even attempt to read this months book, but I am reading the book I chose a few months ago that finally became available. Me Before You and I am loving it! It is pretty much a girls night, more than book discussion, we also played a little Cards Against Humanity and well I didnt get home until 1 AM! Luckily I only took enough wine for two glasses, but the other ladies were regretting thier poor choices from the night before a PA Day! Check out the glasses we had made: 

Friday was gloomy, and we just stuck around the house and worked away on whatever I could with children. Friday night was pretty much tackling the to-do list, like hanging curtains in the basement, etc. Oh and Noah had a hair cut. 

Saturday morning we got right to work, got ready for gymnastics, stopped at the market for fresh cut flowers and then off to gymnastics. He did pretty well, and it is great to see how much he improves week to week. I stopped at Carters to get Noah something to wear for the baptism, we grabbed lunch and headed home. Once we got the kids down for their naps I headed to Costco to pick up the cake, pictures and fruit and veggie trays.

A kid free shopping trip needs to be documented, even if I was only gone an hour! I did enjoy a drive on the highway with the music loud and windows down! 

When I got home I had to get at least the front of the porch done. So while I was doing that, the kids were playing in the backyard with M. 

By the end of the night I just soaked up some sweet baby snuggles!! Em is such a cuddle bug! 

I managed to get this hung before heading to bed myself:

Sunday morning was a race around the house to wash the floors, get ready and do some last minute things. 

It was soo busy that we failed in getting a picture of Noah and boy was he cute. Em's God Mother managed to get this one at least:

The church service was amazing. The whole service was based on Hope. The sermon just hit home and was soo personal, yet perfect. Hope brought us to our children, and that is why Emilya's middle name is Hope. 

Emilya did great during the whole service and actually Noah did pretty good too, although he was busy. Unfortunately when we got up to the front to do the actual baptism, Noah had to pee, so Grandma ended up missing it while she took Noah to the bathroom. M and I both felt horribly, but it was one of those situations that we asked ourselves "what do you do?"

Of course we manage to get some family photos:

And with Emilya's god parents:

The dress:

This dress was mine as a baby and it was just soo important to me that she wear this one! When we couldn't find it, I was actually losing sleep over it! My mom gave her the headband as a gift for her baptism:

A few pictures of her in the dress:

After the service, we had lunch planned back at our place, we served lunch meats, buns, salad, etc. This is the cake I picked up from Costco:

And now for a little comparison photo:

That's me on the left and Em on the right! Crazy how much we look alike! 

Sorry Em! I had to do it!! Lucky for her headwear has come a long way:

It was soo nice celebrating Emilya! We feel soo blessed to have her in our lives! 

Menu Monday

I'm saving my weekend rewind for tomorrow, so I can properly document Emilya's baptism, but it was an amazing day we had celebrating our little girl!!

Instead, we are coming into fall - wait, we are in fall!! Menu planning is pretty much NOT happening and just as the fall rush is about to kick in, we need to get on track! The days are only getting shorter and we need more time in the evening as a family instead of cooking in a rush. 

We get sick of the same quick meals over and over, so I have decided we are going to try to cook one new recipe a week! Pinterest is amazing thing, along with a few great you-tubers! It's about time we start finding some new favorites! 

To kick this off, we are going to try an easy Chicken Parmesan tonight!! I'm pretty excited about it. We have some left over pasta salad left over that I will pair it with and that will be supper tonight!! I will share the link below:

http://chefsavvy.com/recipes/the-best-chicken-parmesan/

I will try to do a recipe share post each week, or at least ever couple of weeks with a few of our favorites as they come up!! 

Wish us luck!! 

Weekly Schedule

It's officially fall!! We are still getting hot days, but the evenings and mornings are cool, so it really is perfect, if only my week wasn't soo crazy and I could get a new routine going to get out and enjoy a morning walk.

Monday we didn't make it to play group because Em was napping and if I have learned one thing over the years, you don't wake a sleeping baby - unless you need to and play group doesn't fall under a need. Secretly, with our weekends being as busy as they are, I kind of love having Monday's at home, or being an optional activity at least. Especially when I look at our new fall weekly schedule, we pretty much have something on the go everyday. 

Monday's we have play group. 

Every other Tuesday I have a Preschool meeting here at the house, where a teacher comes and works with myself for Emilya, just giving us different activities for her to do, to help get her ready for school - I know this seems soo early, but it really is a great program they have offered us. I will share more on all of that soon. 

Wednesday's we will have Songs and Stories at the library here in the village starting in October. 

Thursday's I signed Noah up for a Music in Motion class, it's about 30 minutes long and I am soo bummed to have missed his first class. Luckily Grandma was able to take him and I love that most of his classmates are from here in the village, so I think it will be something we will really enjoy! I'm not exactly sure what the class entails, aside from singing and dancing - 2 things Noah loves to do! 

Friday's are grocery days, so I have been leaving him with Grandma in the mornings. Grocery shopping with Em can be quite frustrating, so I am still trying to figure out this time for us. 

Saturday's we have gymnastics and Sunday's are our family day! 

So needless to say we have a busy week, which is good, but I want a good routine to go along with it. We have got Noah on a great bedtime routine right now with him being in bed by 8 PM, we find he is back to sleeping in again. If he does go to bed later, he wakes up earlier! We are in the process of trying to get Em to sleep by 7:30, but we have yet to have it work yet! 

We haven't exactly started meal planning up again, so we need to also work on that, because it makes life soo much easier. 

But that is how our week is laid out lately! 

This weekend is going to be pretty busy, but I can't wait to celebrate Emilya with our family and friends with her baptism! 

Weekend Rewind

I can't believe we are in mid-September already! I knew this month was going to fly by with how busy it is!

Friday night was our first night post-ball season and boy was it nice to have M home! That was a long summer of solo bedtimes, although I think I have got it figured out at least! I just have to remember that not every night is ever the same, well for Emilya that is! Noah is pretty easy to put to bed! 

Saturday morning involved some early morning housework before we rushed out the door to get to the market before gymnastics so I could order buns for Em's baptism. Em was not impressed about being in the car AT all. We also learned a valuable lesson, do not take Noah to gymnastics early - show up on time. He just wanted to run up and down the wheelchair ramp, which only tired him out more. He was soo exhausted by the end of the class and therefore super miserable. His answer was "no" to everything. We really did pick the right time for the class, because this allows us to do lunch and then naptime. I will say it was crazy how much Noah picked up from his first class, because during this class he was supporting himself and actually hanging off the rings this week and the bar.

Saturday afternoon was spent filling the pool, the rain helped with that! I finished organizing all of
Emilya's clothes into seperate bins and then we cleared room in what we call the toy room upstairs, but in all reality it is storage for us and the toy room is downstairs. We put all the labeled bins in there and now her nursery is just about ready for her. I haven't painted the frames, or redone the pictures yet, but in all reality that's not stopping her from sleeping in there at least!

Right after supper I rushed into town and grabbed our groceries for the week, giving myself just an hour, so I could be home to feed Em before bed. I managed to get to 3 stores and was home to tuck
Noah in and feed Emilya.

Sunday morning we woke up early and were out of the house by 7:30 AM!

 

We had to stop and grab my baptism dress on our way to meeting my Dad at Greenview Aviaries. It was about an hour and half drive, and suprisingly Emilya didn't fuss much until we were about 20 minutes away from arriving! The DVD player seemed to help distract her! 

 

 

We had a great morning exploring the park, seeing the animals and then playing!

 

We were so proud of Noah for trying the zip line!! He did great with it!! 

 

He also figured out the big swing:

 

 

We had an amazing drive home:

 

Both kids sleeping!! 

Em even woke up in a great mood!!

 

When we got home it was back to work, getting the pool all put back together. This week we need to focus on getting the pool area finished and the front porch, as well as clean the house! Clearly it's going to be busy!! I did manage to get the upstairs bedrooms all vacuumed, now I just need to wash the floors up there. I also got Gracie's hair trimmed. 

We have such a busy week ahead of us! But I'm excited to celebrate Emilya this weekend!!