St. Maarten - MANEV Winter Vacay 2017 - Part 1

Vacation is never long enough, and this trip was no exception! Although, as sad as were to see it over, we all welcomed our separate rooms and beds, as well as all our fur babies when we did get home!!   


Let's break this vacay up into bullet form:  


Tuesday: - we left the house at 6:30 AM - the kids were amazing in the airport and the airplane, so that was a big win! Our flight was quick and we landed early!!

- Noah didn't nap, so we had a tired boy on our hands, but he snoozed a bit on the way to our apartment, as that seemed to take forever, but I think we were all just tired and hot by then! Our rental car was a Ford Explorer, this is the vehicle I thought I wanted as my next vehicle, but after having one for a week, it is not big enough!!  


- We went for a quick swim before dinner. There is an hour time change, which threw the kids off a bit when it came to bedtime and meals 


- we rented a studio apartment and it only had a shower with no tub, so we made showers work for everyone, which Noah was used to because of last time we were here, but we were super nervous about how bedtime was going to go with all being in the same room! But it couldn't have gone better!!! It did take time, as one of us laid with Noah until he fell asleep and one of us rocked Em to sleep, but once they were down, they were down and we were able to go sit outside, relax, play cards, etc.   


Wednesday:
- was an early start... both kids were up before sunrise. Luckily M is a morning person and could handle waking at that hour, because I certainly cannot, so he took the kids outside with their milk and they had quiet time outside. I had not slept well at all.   


- after Emilya's nap, we decided went to visit friends of Mike's parents. They were such a sweet couple, their rental was gorgeous, the kids had fun swimming and they got the cutest little gifts from them, along with some yummy snacks.

- we headed to the grocery store next. I was able to buy me some sugar cane syrup, something you can't get here, so I brought 2 bottles home!!  

- we pushed naptime again, but they managed to get a small nap in. We learned that the kids really had to eat no later than 5:30! The time change and early start were not our friends. 

- Noah went to bed as a two year old for the last time!     


Thursday:
- Noah turned THREE!!! 


- the kids woke up extra early again, but after Em's morning nap we headed to the beach!!!

- it really was not the best beach day, but Noah requested going to the beach in his birthday and well how often will he get to do that in life?? So we made it happen!!! 
 

- it was crazy wavy, and a strong undertow, but we made the best of the morning. I will say Noah had fun and that is all that matters.
   
- after nap we threw a little birthday party up at the pool, with decorations, balloons, presents and cake!

- our dinner plans of pizza was a bust, because none of them opened until 5:30, so we would be looking at a late dinner, which we knew wouldn't work, so M's Mom threw something together quickly. We did cake up by the pool.  Check out this birthday sunset:

- I still can't believe he's 3!!!     


Friday:
- we had a morning by the pool.  

  - after nap, we got ready to go out for dinner! M wanted lobster!  

Yes, the boys all had to dress in matching shirts. The people staying above us were soo sweet and gave Noah this orang shirt to match Grandpa's for his birthday!

The first picture was too funny not to share...

  - we walked the strip, but most of the shops weren't open yet. So we found a little restaurant right on the beach, I enjoyed ribs  

- seriously they KNOW how to make ribs in St. Maarten, Noah had chicken and Mike had his lobster.   

  - on the way back to the car, we decided to be spontaneous, as Noah wanted nothing more but to go in the water on the beach. Of course we only had the clothes we were wearing, but we all went in the water, but we had fun. It's these little moments that I love, the look on Noah's face when we said sure was priceless! These are the memories I hope he remembers, because I certainly will!! 

All About Maggie

Deciding to get a dog was not an easy decision by any means. I know I have mentioned it in the past but I had a lot of fears in getting another dog and overall I wasn't sure that my heart was ready for another dog. It's been the topic of many conversations back and forth between Mike and I and we had pretty much decided we would wait until after vacation in the new year. We discussed getting a rescue dog, but we decided with having the kids now, it just isn't the right time, as you never know what they have been exposed to or how they react with children - just too unpredictable for this life stage. 

 So you are probably wondering how we ended up with one now? Well Miss Gracie was just down right depressed. She has lost weight, mopes, eats very little and just has no will in her. We were actually concerned that had we waited a few more months AND gone away on vacation that she may not make it. It was only getting harder and harder to watch her daily.  

   It started out with just looking for litters being born and then it quickly came into okay what breed are we going with? Obviously we love golden retrievers, but they require quite a bit of maintenance. We were leaning towards a lab, as they don't quite have the same hair maintenance. Then we had to decide how far we willing to travel for a pup. We couldn't get over the price of dogs now! It blows my mind how much people ask for cross breeds, yet alone pure bred. Clearly we haven't bought a dog in quite some time. I spoke to a couple different breeders of both labs and golden retriever/lab cross, but ultimately we came across the lab shepherd ad. I was a little hesitant, as I am not a shepherd fan, but agreed to consider them. We ended up setting up an appointment to go see them that same day, as they were only 20 minutes away.   

 I was happy to hear that the mother is mostly lab herself and the dad is pure bred lab. The Mom had a litter of 12!! We had 4 girls to choose from. We did want a boy, but weren't against a girl if we liked them. We took both kids with us and saw all 4 of the remaining pups, all black little fur balls at 4 weeks old!

Picking a puppy is not an easy task, especially with children. I felt like we were there forever. Miss Maggie stood out to us, because she didn't just come running out at as, she stayed back and assessed, then she approached Noah first and then came running to Mike and I and was already trying to play with Noah, where as the other pups aside from one other were already uninterested. Maggie picked us, just as much as we picked her. Maggie was also the only girl with white on her chest out of the 4 as well.   

 So we picked Maggie and then had a few weeks left before we could get her. Noah didn't quite understand why we went to see them and was sad that we didn't bring one home. For the next few weeks he kept bringing up the puppy, asking Daddy if we could get one and then Santa. The breeder was sending weekly pictures of our pup, which was great to see her grow!!

We decided that we didn't want to give Maggie to the kids on Christmas, because we wanted the excitement of Christmas to be just on Christmas, so we picked up Maggie on the 23rd and surprised the kids with her then. Noah wasn't to sure of her until we took her out of the box and then he was soo excited and the playing began. Gracie was taken back, but interested. She didn't growl or get upset, but rather undecided on the new addition. Well that didn't take long to change.

They are the best of friends already today. Our Gracie has that twinkle in her eye again, is playing and is just soo much happier. Maggie is pretty good with the kids, although we have some work to do with nipping and jumping, but overall, she is great. She is already walking great on a leash and asking to outside! She sleeps all night in bed with us and we are crate training for when we leave the house and even that is getting better.

Maggie has been a great addition to our family and yes it can be stressful at times, but it was stressful before her at times too. As far as training her, we will have more time to dedicate to her training over these slow months for M, rather than in the spring when he is busy.

Welcome to the family Mags!

Weekend Rewind

I'm pretty much sad that this weekend is over for a couple of different reasons. 1) I missed out on a full day of family time. 2) I wish the Luke Bryan concert was a full day of watching him, instead of just a few hours.

My weekend was pretty amazing. 

Friday night Noah wanted to go for a truck drive, so we all loaded into the truck - the kids had thier pjs still on, because we had a pyjama day and then we let him direct us on where to go. It's safe to say he knows his own way to the farm from home! He took us right there, with a detour to the fireball on the way there. Smarty pants!! 

So instead of driving by the farm, we actually stopped in because we had some stuff in the truck that M didn't drop off. So we thought we would let Noah take up to the door himself. He was pretty excited. He knocked at the door and no one came, so we told him to just go in, as we waited at the truck. Well the poor kid opened the one door, went to go in, fell and got stuck in the screen door. It really was quite the entrance. Grandma and Grandpa came quickly to the screaming, as did we. He was quite ticked off, but more upset that he wanted them to answer the door, so he could give the bag to Grandma. He got over it quickly and then just wanted to play for a bit, so we stayed for a bit before heading home to start bathes and bedtime. 

 

Saturday morning I was out the door shortly after 9 AM, I picked up my sister and we were headed state-side. We anticipated a long border wait because the red wings were playing, as well as the football game, but nope, we crossed right away - no line up!! 

This meant we had some time to shop!! Target was up first! I love that store. I soo wish it would come back to Canada, but with American pricing and American products - like it needs to be legit the same!! I ended up getting myself a shirt, the kids Christmas pyjamas, the kids some clothes - love their new kids line btw, I got a shadow box picture frame to put my last knitting project with my Grandma in. I also got Noah a little peppa pig play set, some wall art for Emilya's nursery - I really love how this is shaping up!! I also grabbed mini m&m's for baking and my favorite candy the don't sell in Canada - why??? 

We had no luck at TJ Maxx, I did well at Carters and I grabbed myself a 10ft long phone charging cable, oh and it has unicorns on it!! 

We grabbed an early supper at Chili's, grabbed gas and attempted to head down to the concert. Apparently my sister isn't the best navigator, but we ended up making it and found some pretty decent parking! 

The concert was amazing, of course, not a doubt in my mind that it wouldn't be!! I know I have been to a bunch of his concerts, even on the same tour, but they are all different!!! The concert was even extra long because it was the last one of the tour!! 

We got back to my Dads around 12:30, visited for a but, I pumped and then went right to bed! In the morning, we had breakfast with my Dad and Cindy and then hit the road by 9:30, a little later than we planned! The drive is long, but always seems longer on the way home, and it was raining! 

I got home right around 12 and had 45 minutes to get myself ready to goto a baptism. Seeing the kids was the best part of the day for sure! They both were soo happy to see me, such a warm feeling!! I gave Noah the little gift I got him and told him to close his eyes for a surprise - this is what I got:

But his reaction when he saw I got him Peppa Pig figurines was pretty good! I guess now I have some Christmas ideas for my family - haha.

Luckily it was close by, so I was able to leave Noah home to nap with Mike, while I took Emilya. 

 

I came home after the service to pick up the boys, and of course Em fell asleep on the way home! We enjoyed a nice family get together, grabbed some dinner on the way home.

After suppe we had the fun task of pumpkin carving! We only ended up with one pumpkin this year, but we had fun carving it!! Be sure to check out the video on Instagram of Noah's reaction - still laughing about it!! 

Em to the job quite seriously and bit it:

 

  

 

The finished product:

 

And the traditional pumpkin photos:

 

 

I will recap our Halloween hopefully tomorrow - Emilya is teething like a monster right now with her top two teeth coming in and is not a happy camper!! 

Thanksgiving Weekend Rewind

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving has come and went already, it seemed to be early this year. We did have a pretty good weekend though.

Thanksgiving leaves us feeling not only very thankful for all that we have, but also soo very blessed. Our minds can't help but to travel back to when we were trying for a baby and going through IVF. Thanksgiving marks our very first IVF cycle that failed. We can remember that pain like it was yesterday. It's hard waiting for something you want so badly, so having Emilya be apart of our family this year is just another blessing, something we weren't sure was possible and now we have 2 beautiful babies. Thanksgiving is just a reminder that hope will see us through, along with the help of family and close friends and some amazing doctors in this case. 

Friday M surprised us and was home early. We finished watching the ball game together and then headed to the park with the kids! Emilya was LOVING the swing! The rest of our evening was uneventful. After the kids were in bed I ended up having a few of the girls over for a bonfire. It was such a perfect fall night for a fire. Hopefully it won't be the last. 

Saturday morning was gymnastics. Noah did really well again, this is such a great class for him and I
love that it is his and Daddy's thing they do together. Em and I love watching. After gymnastics I hit up Walmart while M grabbed us all lunch. On the way home I stopped at the local baby store and picked up the cutest headbands - I know more headbands?? Is there such a thing as too many? I just think the top knot bands will be helpful with Em's hearing aid when she gets it! 

Saturday was spent doing laundry, tidying up the basement and just general chores and lots of family time! We let Noah dress himself after gymnastics since the weather is cooler and shirts are no longer warm enough. Come to mention it, we actually turned our heat on. 

Sunday morning I made apple crisp for Thanksgiving and actually this was my new recipe of the week. My usual recipe hasn't been working lately and I like a nice crispy top, so I followed this recipe and it was great!! I ended up doubling it, because I made a big pan of it, but you bet I will make it again!!

  

PIN

After naptime we got the kids ready to go to our family dinner. We failed at getting family pic and I am not going to tell you how many pictures we took trying to get a pic of them both smiling...but here are a few of what we did get:

 

 

 

Clearly we have some work to do before our family photos this weekend!! 

Little man wanted a pic all by himself:

 

We had a great time visiting with my side of the family. Noah obviously had a blast playing with the cousins, but Emilya was a little grumpy, over tired and was not loving how loud it was. We headed home around 7:30, listening to the ball game on the way home and then watching the rest of it when we got home and got the kids in bed. It was a great game and put us into the next round!! Go Blue Jays go!! 

 

Monday morning I worked on Emilya's drawers, as we are now transitioning her completely upstairs, which means her changing area in the mudroom is leaving. M and I are trying to come up with a new plan for the mudroom as far as layout and making best use of the space. One thing we have decided is that we will be building a closet, the wardrobe idea just doesn't work for a family.

 M and Noah went to the farm to get the pump and came home with the kobota. Apparently Daddy had a hard time saying "No" to Noah, so we had one happy little boy! The boys closed the pool together. 

 

I enjoyed a soak in the hot tub when the kids went down for a nap and when I came inside M went out to cut the grass. M's parents ended up coming home from the lake early and popped over, so we planned a last minute dinner with them at the farm. Emilya had a nice long nap! When she woke up we all packed into the kobota and by all, I mean Gracie too and headed over. 

 

We had a nice dinner and visit and came home just in time for the kids to have a bath together. M took Noah up to bed while I fed Emilya and then we put her down. 

We have a busy week ahead of us! Today Em gets her 6 months shots, tomorrow we have songs and stories at the library, Thursday we have his Music in Motion class and that afternoon we have tickets to go see The Wiggles and Friday we have a play date planned. I think it is going to fun week!!