Calgary Day 3

On our 3rd day in Calgary I was finally able to meet Nicole and her kiddos! Alison and Delainey (and Cruz) were able to come along as well and we took a nice long walk in (and out of) Confederation Park!!

(stole this one from Alison)

It was soo great to meet Nicole and her daughter Audrey and son Leo. We had been chatting back and forth for so long and had made another great friendship miles away from each other. Our boys are soo close in age and therefore Nicole has been a great support and someone I can text quickly as things come up, knowing that she most likely just dealt with the same thing! 

We stopped in the park to feed the babies and of course snap a few (or a lot) of pictures!!

After we finished our walk, M, Noah and I drove back to hotel after grabbing a quick lunch, had yet another nap and then got ready to go to Nicole's for the "blogger meet up". Nicole was nice enough to host us all at her house! M decided he didn't want to be the only man at our dinner so he went and saw a movie he had been wanting to see after dropping me and Noah off! 

Noah and I were able to meet Lindsey and her daughter Avery, as well as Leigh. Rachel unfortunately wasn't able to make it, as something came up last minute with her son. Of course Nicole was there along with Alison and Delainey.

I wanted to get the girls a little something, so I had my sister make these bracelets, one for each of the girls:

Be sure to check out her shop on etsy: EmmieMaeBoutique

We did potluck and I brought ice cream cake and moscato! Dinner was great and the company was even better! It was soo great to finally meet some of the girls that I communicate with weekly, if not daily with some of them! A great group of ladies, I wish I lived closer too!! Here we all are:

M came to pick me up after everyone had headed home and Nicole was nice enough to invite him to have the leftovers from our dinner, which was a great break for M to have some homemade food as well. Crazy how much you miss home cook meals when you are eating out all the time! We had a great visit with Nicole's kids and hubby.Nicole and I drank wine, Noah enjoyed having access to a swing and I read lots of books to Audrey, who just kept bringing handfuls of books for me to read!! Such a cutie!! 

We headed back to the hotel and headed right to bed! This time change was soo hard on us, but it probably had something to do with getting up at 5 AM everyday!! 

Calgary Day 2 - Canmore

Of course travelling all the way to Calgary, we couldn't miss out on visiting and introducing Noah to one of our favorite places in Canada - Canmore! I will forewarn you there are a lot of pictures in this post!

So we had a great breakfast at the hotel before heading over to Alison's to pick up her and Miss D. I couldn't resist a good snuggle with Cruz - shhh don't tell Lily and Gracie!

Delainey and Noah checked each other out:

Then we were off to Canmore! Poor Alison was stuck in the back of our Jeep Wrangler in between both babies!

We toured around thanks to our trusty tour guide lol, who guided me into a business to ask where the river was, however that was the best thing we could have done because she sent us to an old rail bridge that goes over the river and into the mountains! Big score, perfect for pictures, but a hidden little gem!

So here are the pictures Alison took of us and we took of her, etc.:

Taking these next ones were a challenge! The babies just wanted to pull at each other in a friendly way of course!

After pictures, we went to The Wood for lunch! It was pretty good! We enjoyed a nice patio view of the mountains.

Noah didn't really feel like smiling apparently!

But Delainey did:

We introduced Alison to Somersby! You Calgary girls have been missing out up until this point! Although the guy at the liquor store later on in the week said they sell out before they hit the shelves! 

We tried again:

We enjoyed some yummy food! 

Even smooches couldn't crack him! I blame the time change, it took him a while to adjust!

This one is from Alison's phone and the babies we realized just weren't going to look or smile and that was okay!

We toured around Canmore in and out of shops, grabbed some ice cream before heading back to drop of Alison. 

Unfortunately the drive home was not as smooth sailing as the ride up. Noah lost it about 20 minutes from Alison's and when I say lost it, I mean LOST it! He cried his first real tears! I was stuck driving and couldn't do anything about it! He just hated that car seat, it laid him down further than ours at home, add hunger to that mix and he was not happy! Poor guy! Poor Alison! I finally consoled him when we got back to Alison's, gave him a quick feed and we headed back to our hotel!

I did sneak in a snuggle with this wiggly worm:

(stolen from Alison's blog)

We popped into WalMart to grab diapers and some snacks for the hotel.

Overall it was a great day, minus Noah crying his first tears, which broke my little heart, but we survived. I gave him extra snuggles that evening. 

I will say that we were in bed by 9 that night. 

I am soo happy we were able to show Noah Canmore, even though he won't remember it, it is just one of those wonderful places that we feel drawn to. 

Calgary Night 1 & Weekend Rewind

Starting off where I left off from my last post - after our family nap on Canada Day after arriving at the hotel, we got ready and headed out to Earl's to meet up with Alison and Justin and we were finally able to meet Miss Delainey! Such a doll!! Her smile I swear lights up a room and she has such a sweet twinkle in her eye!

Dinner was great, I love how we are able to just pick up right where we left off. Crazy to think the last time we visited (2 years ago) our conversations were about our struggles with conceiving, and now here we were with our miracles meeting for the first time! Our conversations were now parenting strategies while eating some great food and sipping on some great wine and entertaining babies! Wouldn't change a thing!

This was the perfect start to a great week! Although I will say, I wish we lived closer, our daily email and texts are great, but hanging out together was awesome, made me sad to think that we live 4000 km away because we had soo much fun!

We snapped a few photos, discussed our plans for the next day and called it a night. Noah, M and I definitely struggled with adjusting to the time change, so an early evening was just what we needed, as we were in bed before dark. The last time we were down it wasn't bad, but because we have Noah now, and we were trying to keep his routine as similar as possible, being up soo much earlier, I think that is what caused the issue. Noah didn't sleep the best the first night, as to be expected, but we ended up putting him in bed with us half way through the night and he slept great.

The picture:

Apparently we had to pick the brightest spot to take the picture! Excuse the squinty eyes on all of us!

Alison's pic off her phone:

I forgot my wifi memory card, so Alison took a pics on her phone so we didn't have to wait 2 weeks to send them!

And just so I don't get too far behind on current events, our weekend rewind is pretty short this week, so here we have it:

We arrived home on Saturday, of course Noah woke up 15 minutes too soon on the way home from Toronto and screamed out in hunger. Will this ever get easier on a mama? I swear I now want to cry right along with him, it stresses me out soo much. I just want to make his world better in an instant.

Once we got home, we got a warm welcome from our pets. No cold shoulders this time, so we know they enjoyed their holiday too with M and A, who spoiled them I am sure. But it was great coming home after being gone for 2 weeks. We sat down and relaxed for a bit after I fed Noah. We also went to bed nice and early.

Noah didn't have a great first night home, as to be expected because of the time change, but he woke at 10:30, 3:30 for some reason and then 7:30, where we promptly fell asleep during that feed, woke at 8:30 to discover that and then M got up with Noah and I slept until 10:30 - apparently I was tired, but I think I just missed my bed.

Sunday we unpacked the suitcases, put away laundry, got a few things organized, went and got groceries and enjoyed some down time. Noah was a little out of sorts still, but I think once we get back into our routine he will be fine.

Today we are off to the doctors to get weighed and for his one oral vaccine and then we have a nice chill day planned at home and then dinner at the farm!

Easy Peasy Wreath Tutorial

I've been wanting to make one of those cute burlap wreaths for quite some time. If you follow me on Pinterest, you would see various wreath tutorials like this:

PIN

And yes, I realize they say they are "easy" as well, but guess what, I couldn't get it to work! I later realized that the wreath wire I was using was actually only 3 rings, not 4, which could have been the problem.

I was getting soo very frustrated. I had 2 rolls of cute chevron burlap waiting for me to use. So when in doubt, just wrap the burlap around the wreath until the burlap roll ends:

Then I took a few pins and pinned it into place so it couldn't unravel. I decided to pin it so that I could reuse the burlap afterwards for another craft if I so choose when I am sick of this wreath!

This my friends was actually EASY!!!

I decided I needed to add an embellishment and Alison had given me this flower clip forever ago and I found a new perfect place for it!

So friends when I told you it was easy, and that you don't need to be crafty to make it, I wasn't kidding!!

Turns out I have a 4 ring wreath up in my craft room, so with the other roll, I might try one of those fancy complicated ones, or I might just make another one of these, but I will have to get crafty with the embellishment this time myself!

So there you have it ladies, get crafting!!!

What I Am Loving

I figure it has been a while since I have shared my loves lately... so here we go!!

I am loving phase 1 of the kitchen:

 

 

 

I made a new recipe last night that I made up!! Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadilla's! They were a big hit!! Super easy! M was a little concerned when he realized I wasn't following a recipe, but he enjoyed the finished product!

I am loving my new camera strap!!! And remember you can win one as well! Here is the link to yesterday's post just incase! Trust me you do not want to miss out on this!! Ashley makes amazing straps! This is my second one!!

Here is my first:

 

And here is what YOU can win:

We have new tenants on our property:

A sweet little robin family!! Love seeing these reminders that spring is here! I also can't wait to watch these guys grow up!!

My lulu lemon headbands came in as well!! Love these!! They actually hold my hair back!!!

 

I am back to work today... that is not something I am loving...

 

I am also not loving the tragedy that Boston is going through! What a sick world we live in! My heart breaks for all of those involved, but I am also amazed with how many people risked their own lives to help others out!! That touches my heart and is a good reminder of the good we have in life!

Hubs in The Hotseat

So I figured that I would do this little question/answer session with M, that I saw over on Caroline's blog. I figured that maybe this would redeem us a bit since we failed at the couples question and answers in Jamaica! We only got 1 right there... I am blaming stage fright and miscommunication of the questions oh and maybe the rum?!.

So let's see how we did...

1. How long have you been married?

A: 5 years 7 months.

M: 5 1/2 years

2. Where was your first date?

A: Halloween at my parents (waaay back in high school..) 

M: Washing dishes at a community event - my response: this was our second date!

3. Where was your first kiss?

A: In the hallway at my parents after the Santa Claus parade

M: After the Santa Claus parade

4. Who first said, "I love you"?

A: Mike

M: I did

5. What were your wedding colors?

A: Pink

M: Pink and white

6. What is her most commonly used phrase?

A: "seriously"

M: "seriously, I'm not even joking"

7. Who is her celebrity crush?

A: Channing Tatam

M: Tyrese - my response to this: It seriously used to be back in the day when it mattered!

8. If she was ordering drinks for both of you what would you each get?

A: Coke and Ginger ale - if drinking rum and coke for him and something fruity for myself

M: Coke for me, Iced Tea for herself - if drinking rum and coke for me, strawberry daiquiri for her.

9. What is the best meal she has ever cooked you?

A: My pasta sauce

M: Pasta sauce

10. What is the worst meal she has ever cooked you?

A: Anything on the bbq

M: Bbq'd food

11. What is the most-played song on her iPod?

A: Country Music - changes too often

M: Anything country

12. What would she say is your most annoying habit?

A: Laughing too loud

M: Farting

13. What is the last thing she does before she goes to bed?

A: Say goodnight and I love you to each pet individually

M: Say goodnight, I love you and sweet dreams to me after each pet

14. What would you say is your favorite thing about her?

A: No idea

M: Boobs... pg... sense of humor

15. What's her go-to drink at Starbucks?

A: Passionfruit tea lemonade

M: Passionfruit iced tea?or something that sounds like that

16. What's her blog's name?

A: Life As I Know It

M: Life As I Know It

I think we did pretty good on this!!! I guess we do know each other after all!!



Necklace Give Away

Today I am participating in my first group GIVE AWAY!!!

Head on over to Katie's blog For Lauren and Lauren and check it out!!! Good luck!!!

I am giving away a necklace made by my one and only sister and I am super jealous of who ever wins it!!!

Here it is:

I have told my sister she needs to make me this one too (she is already making me 2 others...what is one more?)

My sister has made me a "few" necklaces in the past:

And this anklet for my wedding:

Good luck!!!