August Long Weekend Rewind

What a fun weekend we had and we finally got some rain!! Things are finally starting to look a little greener around here!!

Friday my Dad and C arrived to spend the weekend. Noah was soo excited that they were here!! We had burgers for supper and enjoyed playing outside until Noah fell backwards into the dog water bowl outside... It was rather humorous, however he didn't feel that way whatsoever. 

Saturday morning we finally got rain, lots of rain!! It was a good thing, because we really needed it!! 

Dad and Noah played in the teepee for the morning and seemed to have fun doing that! 

When the rain stopped we went outside and tidied up the yard! My Aunt, cousin J and her daughter B arrived early, so B could nap before the party! The kids had a little dance party, enjoyed some lunch together and then played for a bit on the bouncy castle before heading in for nap. It's about that time that all hell broke lose... Noah had a melt down because his scab on his elbow started to come off and after his melt down was done, Briar backed into the freshly filled dog water bowl in the kitchen and was not happy about it at ALL!! Not to mention the kitchen was flooded. So we cleaned that all up and the focus became getting those two up to nap! 

After lunch J french braided my hair for me and then the rest of the family was starting to arrive!! The weather was perfect! We had a great time visiting with everyone, Noah had soo much fun playing with all his cousins! The bouncy castle was a huge hit! I actually remembered to bust out the bubble machine, although I didn't get a picture with the kids playing with it, but it was a big hit! We had horsee races in the yard with the kids! I will let the pictures I did manage to take to do the talking:

 

 

 

M smoked another brisket for this party and everyone brought potluck! We had a great supper!! 

 

We all sat on the pool deck and ate a delicious dinner!! 

  

 

And then it was time for cake for Briar's birthday and I'm pretty sure Noah thought they were singing to him... Cute nonetheless! 

 

The kids all stayed up late, everyone left around 8:45 PM and Noah was asking to be carried to bed! It didn't take long for him to fall asleep!! And it didn't take long for the rest of the house to follow suit!! 

Sunday morning we had pancakes for breakfast and then it was time for my Dad and C to leave! Noah conned Dad into one more "airplane" (plasma car) race and then it was time for them to go! Noah was pretty sad about that as you can see! 

M and I spent the morning discussing a big purchase and humming and hawing about whether or not to buy the kids a bouncy castle or not! We ended up justifying it on the premisis that we had not bought Noah any BIG toys and all our outside (and most of our inside stuff) is all hand me downs. 

So off to Brantford I went and I will say that I will be shopping there more often, especially since they are getting a Costco! They have soo many great stores, like Winners, HomeSense, Walmart, Toys R Us, a mall, Joe, and soo many more!! So I did hit up HomeSense and found some wire baskets for Emilya's room and it was a bonus that they were aqua and match the nursery! I also got Noah a stool for the kitchen that is super cute! 

I went to Toys R Us next and bought the bouncy castle on clearance, as well as a sleep sack for Em. I like that the castle we bought is good for up to age 9 and has a climbing wall and slide! It is super easy to take up and tear down and I am pretty sure we will get lots of use out of it! 

I had one more stop to Walmart and found a swim suit cover up and a shirt I liked, but no swim suit bottoms!! Mine are all too big! I also found the kids a new toy to share and they both really like it! Gotta love clearance sales!! 

Of course the weather was threatening a storm, but we quickly put up the new bouncy castle and gave it a try! Look at his face waiting patiently for it to blow up! He was soo excited!! 

 

 

 

 

I like that it's not something that is up everyday!! 

 

Monday rolled around and we decided to make a last minute trip to the Brantford Zoo! Noah loved it last year - hence the seasons pass, but this year I knew I would struggle to get him there often, so a family trip is just what we needed. Getting out of the house was hectic and I mean hectic, but we were going and to stop twice on the way, but we made it! 

Emilya slept through the whole thing... 

 

The deer were Noah's favorites this time:

 

And no, the deer didn't eat his hand like it looks!! He also loved the goats, Tigers and bears. 

 

Look at the baby turkeys!! 

 

 

We grabbed lunch on the way home and while Noah napped, this one was awake!! 

 

We worked in cleaning out and organizing the back shop! We also put together quite the collection of furniture to donate! Feels good to clear out!! 

That was our long weekend all summed up! Hope everyone had a great weekend too!! 

New Years Week+End Rewind

Since I have jam-packed this week with a catch up of posts, I will recap our New Years weekend and what has gone down this week today for you. 

M worked until about 3 PM on New Years Eve. On Wednesday last week Noah was having a rough day and to make matters worse, we couldn't find his pacifier in bed, so to bed he went without out it and surprisingly he didn't seem to care! However we have since learned there are repercussions to him not having it which include 30 minute naps and early wake ups in the morning!! So needless to say on New Years Eve, Noah was not up late, but we tried our best to make the best of his early evening with a special tub celebration! He wasn't too sure at first, but then loved it once he saw it was a light in the water and it changed colors!

Once the little guy was in bed, M and I tidied up a bit and I watched the movie The Intern on the box. It was really good!!! M was working on his new smoker and then played some xbox games I'm sure! I went to bed around 11:30, but stayed up in bed and watched the ball drop with M. I was asleep shortly after! 

New Years Day was super laid back in comfy clothes all day long! We really just spent the day as a family, which was nice and low key! We also attempted our first family selfie of the year... I won't tell you how many shots we had to take to get this mediocre one, but it's us. Gracie is only looking because we said who's here and Noah is yelling Grandpa - meanwhile Grandpa is nowhere near being home..

After Noah went tthe bed, I conned M into playing Dice Poker wth me and sure en go I started the year out with a win!! 

Saturday morning M had to run and do a job for a farmer, so he dressed Noah up in his coveralls and off they went, giving me the morning to work on laundry and some other things around the house! 

Saturday late afternoon we had some friends over with thier 3 boys for dinner. M was itching to try out his smoker, so we did up steaks, and roasted potatoes on it and then did green beans and a Cesar salad as well as a fresh loaf of bread we made. J & S brought dessert which included this delicious cheese cake with fruit and cupcakes for the kids. Check out my new dessert plates!! Not that you can see, but they say "have your cake and eat it too".

They left just before we started Noah's bedtime routine, but it was a nice afternoon/evening and dinner was pretty great! 

Sunday morning we baked bran raisin muffins for breakfast, as well as put on another loaf of bread! We worked up in Noah's room hanging shelves and got his laundry put away. 

I ran into town to get some groceries, which was crazy busy - no wonder I don't grocery shop on weekends if it can be helped. 

When Noah went down for his nap, I decided to tackle a little DIY project for book shelves in his room, since I was struggling with finding the right baskets. I had b get this fabric months ago, not sure what I would use it for and then I realized it was perfect for Noah's room. Our theme is Noah's favorite things, so you can expect to see baseball, trucks, tractors, dogs, outdoorsy stuff, boating, etc. I know it sounds crazy, but it's really coming together! 

I'm really proud of how these turned out. I'm not the best sewer, so when they ended up the same size as each other, I was really impressed! I will say the only downfall is the amount of books they hold. I thought it would hold more. So are trying to figure out a way to remedy this. But here they are:

M's parents came over for dinner and of course Noah loved playing with Grandpa! We have to try to get in as much time this month with them before they head south! 

After they left I decided to bake some banana muffins too!! 

Monday was back to work for M. I got the call from the dentist informing me I would need to see the dental surgeon. I ended up with an appointment Tuesday to see the surgeon.

It wasn't the best news, it's still gotta come out sooner than later, but it all has to be cleared by my OB next week. Booking the procedure was super tricky for this month, as we have a lot on the go and are trying to plan vacation for February. But we found a potential date that would give me a week recovery, so once it's all cleared by my OB, we are good to go with that. 

I will say Noah has been a champ this week with his behaviour. He is back to normal, apparently our rough week last week has resulted in a little boy with working listening ears, that and we are past Christmas haha. 

Wednesday night we had dinner at the farm, set up their box, and fit bit and then I worked with my MIL to learn how to do the books and payroll while they were gone. It feels nice to have something to focus on aside from maintaining the family home and Noah! 

Last night was the first night of the 21 day fix for myself and second night for M. I'm hoping to get in 4/5 workouts a week if I can, but even if I get 3 in I'm happy. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2015

Christmas this year was 4 days straight of activity!


Christmas Eve day was low key, we baked muffins and cookies, ordered pizza for dinner and attempted to get ready for mass. M ended up getting a fire call for a car accident - not the kind of call anyone wants on a good day, but especially around the holidays. Turns out it was a drunk driver they assume, hit a tree and left the scene by the time they got there, but of course they have to search the area for him to be safe, so he was gone a lot longer than I anticipated.


I got Noah bathed and dressed and was just finishing getting myself ready and M got home just in time to change and off we went into town to church. We ended up being a few minutes late, but weren't too worried.


The service was great, Noah did pretty well, he had a few moments, but the service ran longer than we expected and he was up well past his bedtime, so we just shrugged it off!! We came straight home after church, took our annual Christmas Eve photo and got the little guy off to bed!

This was the best smile we could get, as poor little guy was exhausted!!

While M was putting Noah down, I decided to set the timer on the camera and snap a few photos of my bump with the tree lit behind me! Crazy how blessed I feel with this little one kicking away

Christmas morning started around 8 AM for us and Noah got up just after M's parents arrived around 8:30 AM.

Santa brought Noah the Ikea tent and tunnel and needless to say it was a BIG hit! He was soo excited when he came in the room to see it. He couldn't wait to get in it and was jumping and squealing with excitement and dove right in!

Up next was Gracie's stocking! Noah loved helping her out!

Then is was time for his stocking! He did soo well with opening up each gift and really checking out what he got!

Up next were gifts!

He helped open up the gifts he gave Dad and Grandpa, including this homemade art work he had too much fun making!

A new train that he got for Daddy

Noah picked out Grandpas gift all by himself and apparently it was a good one! Grandpa loves it!

Love these reactions!

Big smiles all around!

I made both Mike's parents and my mom this Grandparents canvas!! I am soo happy with how they turned out - I can hardly believe I made them haha.

We got Noah a teepee - for his room is what we were originally thinking, but it turns out his room is a little too small for this right now. It may be able to go in when we don't need his rocker in there, and to be honest its probably better to not add a sleep distraction when he is doing soo well with going to bed in his new room!

Clearly he loves it and his Grandpa! haha!

Last but not least, Grandma and Grandpa got Noah a new wagon! So Grandpa took Noah and Gracie for a spin around the block to try it out!

For Christmas I got a Fitbit Charge HR, a cricut machine and nursing cover, along with some Christmas decor, casserole dishes, cookie rack, a Pandora photo charm and a few other small things.

M got a smoker, xbox games, cards against humanity, some books, kitchen gadgets and some other small things.

The baby cleaned up well too, which you will see in tomorrows bump date post!

My mom came over in the afternoon and we relaxed for a bit, finished preparing a turkey and goose dinner with all the fixings and we all sat down to a wonderful meal! Mike's parents left just before bath time for Noah and my mom stayed over night! It was a perfect day spent at home and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

I loved seeing Noah's reactions this Christmas! He loved opening presents, playing for a bit, helping everyone else open some gifts and just his overall joy with this season was just amazing to watch! We really are blessed with a wonderful little boy and family!

Since this post is filled with a million photos, I will recap the rest of our weekend later this week! You might just get a full week of blog posts this week!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, because we sure did!!