Vacation Rewind - Week 1

As I mentioned previously we are officially on vacation around these parts. And boy have we been busy!!

Monday was spent winding down from the weekend!! I took Noah to play group, we did some running around and Daddy had to make a stop at the fire hall, so Noah enjoyed "driving" the trucks!

Tuesday we headed end to my Aunts cottage just outside of Grand Bend. It was perfect, granted the weather wasn't the best, but we made the very best of our little getaway!! Our room for the week:

Noah loved the furry red rug:

And our view: 

My mom was up there with us and the first night we took Noah down to the beach to check it out! He loved throwing stones in the water and getting his feet wet!! 

I decided to try making smores bars! They were rather simple, just golden grahams, butter, marshmallows, and chocolate chips! They were super yummy and surprisingly not too sweet!! 

We watched the movie The Heat with Sandra Bullock - it was alright. 

Wednesday morning we woke up with Noah in our bed. Seems to be his thing when traveling! He likes to sleep with us, which if I'm being honest, I could wake up to this everyday: 

Not only was it Canada Day, but my Mom's birthday as well, so the whole family was up for the day! 

It was a chilly day to say the least! 

Noah figured out how to start the quad all on his own!! He was pretty impressed!! 

Family quad ride!! 

Noah was teething up a storm and was either hit or miss with his moods!! Poor guy!! 

We were hard pressed to get his picture in his Canada Day shirt, but we finally caught one!! Not that you can read it!! 

We finished night off with a camp fire watching the fire works over the lake!! Oh and the squitters were horrible, hence my heavy duty bug zapper - best purchase ever!! 

Thursday morning we headed to Grand Bend! It's been a few years since I had been on the strip, and luckily it's just a short 10 minute drive over! 

I managed to find myself a new pair of sanuks: 

And Daddy and Noah bought a new volleyball: 

On our way back to cottage, we stopped to say hello to this friendly horse:

Noah will now say "see" but we aren't sure if it means horsee or see as in look! Lol! 

We were back by lunch time and put Noah down for a nap shortly after!! 

Later that afternoon, my sister came up with the kids to spend a few nights as well. We made ribs for dinner and let the kids play in Noah's kiddy pool we brought up for him. 

Love his contagious smile!!

Sunsets: 

And another movie night where we watched Trouble With The Curve. It was alright too. 

Friday night Noah slept in our bed all night! Come Friday morning Noah was just done! Teething was catching up on him plus lack of sleep and just being out of our routine, so we cleaned up and packed up and headed home! Noah played trains with Brandon while we did that! 

When we got home, we fed Noah lunch and then put him down for a nice long nap! I ran into town to get groceries and when Noah got up he had a low grade fever! Poor guy!! 

Friday night we had ball, and the guys made quite the come back in the last inning and won by one point! 

I think this post is plenty long enough, so I will recap the weekend tomorrow!! 

My Dearest Grandma

Last Monday night, we received the news that my Grandma had passed. Actually my sister and I were talking about her as she passed. I meant to share this last week instead of leaving everyone hanging, but my wardrobe needed massive help and quickly. Luckily my sister came through for me with a dress from her closet that I might have to keep in mine for her!  I ended up adding to this letter for the family and reading it as her eulogy, but this is my original letter.

Dear Grandma,

I would start off this letter telling you how missed you will be, but that is the obvious, so I will share a few things that we will miss about you! 

I will never forget your strength. You had been sick for too long and just when they mention that you won't pull through, you would miracously pull through. Like hell someone was going to decide your fate, you were a fighter!

You were soo strong when Grandpa passed, you weren't afraid of your grief like most of us were. You taught me that it is okay to be mad when someone passes away, it isn't a bad thing, but a stage of grief. You showed us that there is a time to cry, a time to mourn and many times to laugh. You have shown us what it is to love endlessly in past or present. You have taught me that God doesn't do things to punish us. He didn't call upon you because we didn't need you or because you weren't loved, but rather because you were soo loved and you have lived a great life. You were part of His plan.  He only takes the best. 

You kept this family going strong and I pray that we are able to continue this even though you are no longer with us in person, but always in our hearts. I would like to think many card games will continue to play at family functions. This will be a way for you to remain alive with us, more alive than ever if you know how this family plays cards. 

Growing up you helped us find faith by taking us to church when we were in London. I could never understand why you would goto church so often, but then I learned that you had a family with God too and your heart was open to all of those in God's family, whether it was going to church just to pray for someone else. You were always soo generous and putting others first.

I will miss your whitty sense of humor and your crush on Mike. I'm glad you approved of the man I chose to marry and loved how you would often tell both Mike and I how lucky we were to have each other. It made us laugh when you would tell Mike that he needed to take you out on a date instead! I remember the day we did take you out and you thought we were joking, but you would never turn down a good meal and dessert was always a must! 

I will miss your hugs. They were endless and I always felt your love through them as you gave us that extra squish at the end. I hope to never forget this part. I hope to be as proud of a parent as you were to all your children and grandchildren. Coming to various school functions to show your support, telling me how proud of me you were after watching me sing in the church choir as a child or perform in a school play in high school. Your love and support will never go unknown to not only me, but all your children and grandchildren. 

I am sad that my son will not grow up knowing you like I did. But we will do our best in making sure he knows who you are. I am happy that he was at least able to see you before you passed away, although you were not well. I saw you lock eyes on him and can just imagine what you would have said to both me and Noah. I will be sure to let him know that he met one of his great-grandparents. 

Grandma, most importantly, I hope you will always know how loved you are. I put this in present tense because even though you are up in heaven, you are still loved down here. You hold a place in each and every one of the hearts you touched. We will all carry you in our hearts. Heaven gained a new angel when they called upon you. I will pick another star in the sky and know that it is you shining down on us. 

I hope you had the best reunion with Grandpa, because we all know how much you have missed him. I am happy you are together again because a love like that should never be separated. Now the two of you can hold hands once again and watch down on all of your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

Thank you Grandma for being a great role model. I want to love like you loved, live as long as you lived and embrace life just as you did. I want to be patient, just as you were and I would love to have some of your strength. I know the last few years have been rough for you, you had your good days and your bad days. It is your good days that only stand out to me in my mind. Thank you for being you. 

To think that someone like you felt proud of us and loved us unconditionally should make us all feel more than just a little good. We can never forget that there is a part of you in each of us, something that you gave to us and asked nothing for in return because that is just who you were. How lucky we are to have had someone who made saying goodbye soo hard.

Mike and I will miss you. 

Love 

Ashley 

Past Week Rewind

Sorry for the blogging hiatus, a week ago today, my Grandma ended up passing away. She is in a much better place now and her suffering has ended. This led the way for a very busy week.

Wednesday this Mama had to try to find something to wear, luckily my sister ended up pulling through for me with some dress options. 

Thursday we had the visitations and Friday was the funeral. I ended up reading a letter I wrote to Grandma, just adding in bits for the family, to make it from everyone. I will share my letter later this week. 

Needless to say, it was a very busy week, Noah was a champ through it all. So proud of my sweet baby boy!! However his weekend was just as busy! We did manage to grab a quick family photo, and I just have the phone edition, as we had to use Grandma's camera for the picture because I didn't bring mine. 

(Excuse my puffy face - this was taken after the funeral) 

Saturday M's Mom hosted a couples shower for us to welcome Noah with her closest friends and her side family. It was another busy day and I am not sure what energy M and I, as well as Noah were running on by this point. Noah was luckily sleeping through the night great, but for myself at least I was just exhausted, emotionally, and physically. I think it was also hard to transition from such a sad moment in life, and then flipping back to one of the happiest in our lives, but we made the best of it. The shower was great, it was great to see everyone and celebrate! We received some great gifts and Noah will be one well fashioned baby for the next year and a bit! We went for dinner in the village after and then M and I came straight home. I was in bed by 9, missing a few thunderstorms. 

Sunday we tried to start cleaning up the house. I pretty much created a bomb in my closet trying to find something to wear and unfortunately neither M or I wanted to deal with it! It still awaits me unfortunately! The weather was gorgeous, so we opened up the house completely! I would say welcome spring, but we are supposed to get snow tomorrow as well as negative temperatures instead of the 20 degree weather we were spoiled with. 

Noah and I attended my cousins wedding shower in the afternoon, while M did some more housework! We had a quick spaghetti dinner and then headed out for a nice long walk in the village! M's parents popped over when we got back for a visit and watched Noah enjoy his bath time! We were all in bed around 10:30! 

Today Noah has his first set of shots and I would be lying if I were to tell you that this Mama is nervous!!  I am sure he will do great! His 2 month post recapping the last month will be up tomorrow!! 

Weekend Rewind

I had full intentions of posting on Friday, but clearly it didn't happen!

Friday I had my 6 week follow up with my OB! Everything is all good, blood pressure is back to normal and I can resume regular activity as far as my c-section goes. Now we just need to get my ankle back into shape, so I can start getting back into shape! 

Excuse my wild hair - it was a long day! 

After my appointment we went up to visit my Grandma. She unfortunately isn't doing well at all, to the point where she was blessed by the priest on Sunday. She hasn't been well for 2 years, but as much as she is fighting a hard fight, her body is now failing in all aspects. Luckily they are able to keep her comfortable, but unfortunately her days are very limited. Noah was able to "meet" his great-grandma, but sadly he was only able to say hello and a final goodbye in his first visit. Grandma has lived a good life, and as much as we will all miss her, it's soo hard to see her like this and suffering. My Grandma is our last living grandparent for both M and I. 

We did a quick trip to Costco, stopped at Chapters, where M insisted on buying Noah the biggest stuffed dog - it's bigger than Noah! We picked up spare jets for the hot tub and then ended up at the farm for pizza! It was a looong day, but Noah was a champ, up until bedtime that is! He had a rough night! We find if we haven't held him a lot in the day then he either misses us and needs that time, if he was just over stimulated in the day. He also had an upset tummy, which didn't help matters! M ended up sleeping on the lazy boy with him until 5 AM... 

Saturday we managed to get some more spring cleaning done, as well as the nursery, so you will all be happy to hear it will be posted TOMORROW!! Can't wait to share it!! We also enjoyed our first Dairy Queen of the season!! Saturday evening Noah's tummy was upset again, but we figured out the problem! Both days he had a bottle - we used the medela calma nipple that we have always used, but Noah can drink too fast with it. He drank 3 ounces in like 5 minutes, with a burping session at the half way point! The bottle is designed to help ease nipple confusion between breast and bottle, but Noah can suck away to fast and much that he gets it too quick, where as before he had to work hard to get what he could. So we won't be using that one again and will switch over to our Dr. Brown bottles now. 

He ended up sleeping in bed with us, as long as one of us had our hand of him while he was in his Bummzie, then he was content. Little bum. He woke up at 3 for a feed and then 8,we were going to get up, but decided to sleep in. I got up at 10:45am to find M back on the chair with Noah:

Apparently M didn't feel like coming back to bed, but decided the chair wasn't soo bad after all. Because he then did this again at bed time.

We ended up with some visitors that popped in to see Noah in the afternoon. 

We enjoyed a nice family walk, which of course included a family selfie!! We did the whole village again for the first time since fracturing my ankle. I was a little stiff after, but it felt great! I think we still work our way up to it, but throw in the full walk every now and then until I can do it with more ease. 

When we got back we learned that when the dogs are away, the cats don't play, they steal their beds... We couldn't help but to laugh! 

Noah was back to himself, content and happy, got some more housework done and enjoyed chicken on the BBQ before relaxing for the evening!

I forgot the CMA's were on last night until an hour was passed, so hopefully we will watch that today at some point! 

Today Noah is all smiles. I love that he is really figuring out who M and I are and gives us smiles while locking eyes with us. I caught the end of one this morning:

It brings tears to my eyes feeling his love right back at us with his smiles!

 I also think maybe I'm a bit sappy with all that's going on with my Grandma. It feels soo wrong to be soo happy while she is suffering. They say new life brings the end of another, I just wish it wasn't the case. I can remember how happy she was when I told her we were expecting and I'm trying my best to preserve that memory, amongst many others. I was going through pictures last night of my Grandma and found myself teary eyed while collecting them. I just pray for her suffering to end and that she will pass with ease. It is soo hard to see her go through this stage of life. 

Oh My Wednesday...

Soo my Wednesday did not start out as planned... but let's start with how the rest of Tuesday turned out...

Big thanks to everyone's sweet comments yesterday!

The cookies, they happened, the cookie dough was perfect:

It tasted just as I remembered!!

The first batch had some black bottoms... but still enjoyable, but the second batch was just perfect!!

Last night I did Zumba again, found the steps much easier! I think I might try her Yoga class on Thursday! I have never done yoga, aside from the Wii Fit!

Did anyone watch Parenthood last night... Oh my! Aside from the puppy search, I am actually feeling a bit scared for Kristina!

Now on to today's bad start... literally, my car - it wouldn't start!! This is the 2nd time this week! Luckily K was home and came right over to give me a lift over to the farm to get M's truck! To say I was frustrated... would be an understatement! Needless to say, that will need to be fixed! Not sure which one I hope it to be.. the starter or the alternator because I am pretty sure it is not the battery! My day can only get better right?!

Tonight we have our last ball game!! Except, a lot of our team is missing tonight, but we will do our best with what we have!

Remembering

Today I think back 6 years ago and remember the phone call that broke my heart. I heard the news and tried my best to stay strong but once I got off the phone, my knees went weak and I fell to the ground. Tears began to stream from my eyes uncontrollably. I tried to tell M what had happened but I couldn't get the words out. M just held me, knowing there were no words to make this better, my Grandma was gone.

I managed to pull myself together to go up to the hospital and say goodbye. I knew that there was always a time to cry and a time to stay strong. Grandma had taught me this. I knew that it was okay to cry, but part of me wanted to be the stong woman Grandma had taught me to be.

I stood up in front of everyone at her funeral with strength only she would understand. I can remember thinking one day I will be strong like my Grandma and to this day I still strive for this! It didn't matter what Grandma was faced with, she took it on with dignity. I only saw her cry a few times and when I did, I knew just how to comfort her back, just as she would with me. Her hugs were endless and her words were whispers of strength.

When I am down or upset, I can quickly get a grip with her sweet reminders. When I face hard times, I know that I can get through it no matter the outcome because my strength will allow me.

There have been soo many times where I have been able to face the unthinkable because of what she has taught me. There are many times where I could have given up, but I didn't because in my heart I have had her words encouraging me. I do my best to make her proud.

To say I miss her does not sum it up. But I know she is always there for me when I need her the most.

Today not only to I remember a remarkable woman whom I will forever cherish in my heart, I remember soo many memories that I will never forget as a child. The pictures are still vivid in my mind!!

In honor of my Grandma, I plan to make her chocolate chip cookies today! I hope to have the house smell just like hers did. I look forward to the taste of the cookie dough and the taste of a warm cookie melting in my mouth!

I Skipped Monday Again....

I really should just write off blogging on Mondays so it seems... I had full intentions of blogging yesterday, but then I ended up going last minute apartment searching with my Mom and Sister yesterday! Luckily we found one for my Mom!

It has been birthday crazy around here lately!! Sunday was M's!!! Yup he is another year older! We didn't do too much, just dinner with his parents, I made a cake and we had a nice mellow evening. Yesterday was Grandma's, and today is my sisters!!

Our weekend was pretty laid back as well! Friday night M had ball and they won!!! Yay!! Saturday we did housework, picked up ribs for dinner and watched Friends With Kids. It was a pretty funny movie! I also changed the curtains around in the house. The ones from the bedroom are now in the great room and I love it:

I put ones that we had stored away in the bedroom.

On Sunday night I decided to hide my fear and made things happen for myself, hopefully with the support of those around me, but I made my photography facebook page. To say I was scared to hit share is an understatement, but I think it is time I put myself out there!! I have had a lot of support from those around me and I am very appreciative! Feel free to check out my page here and like it!!

Yesterday I took M's truck in for an oil change while apartment searching. We had made some lasagna on Sunday, so we had that for dinner last night and then M was off to fire practice.

Today I finally got my photo book in!!! Sooo excited!! I love how it turned out:

And then my scentsy order came in!!!

Meet Whoot:

He is hard at work right now baking a birthday cake, or so it smells!! I love it!!! I am soo happy scentsy is finally in Canada!!

I am actually considering selling it, because I love the product soo much!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic day!!!

Manic Monday

This weekend just flew on by!!! M and I even squeezed in a lunch date at Eastside Marios!! We didn't reallu get a heck of a lot accomplished this weekend, but M did get some much needed down time! He has working like crazy lately!! We ended up getting the snow storm on the weekend, but that didn't stop us from heading to Hannah's 3rd Birthday yesterday!!

M's squinty smile to get Hannah laughing

Birthday girl got to hold her baby brother for the first time!! She was soo in love with him.

"Look Baby, it's my birthday!"

I am sure we all heard about Whitney Houston's passing... I can remember dancing to Whitney Houston with my sister as a child! We used to LOVE her!! Such a shame to lose another singer to what is assumed to be a drug overdose.

I stopped in to visit my Grandma yesterday too, she wasn't in the best mood, but either way M and I had a chance to visit!

I also made one of the best purchases yesterday - I went and bought a pillow from the hotel we stayed at last! It is amazing and I slept sooo good last night!!!

I went off to London with K this morning, while she had an appointment, I visited Brandon and my sister. K and I also realized that we were from this point on Pizza Hut daters. We are the only ones who LOVE Pizza Hut!! I'm soo excited about this!

It was a pretty great laid back weekend and might be the last one for a while, as our renovations are starting soo soon - as in potentially next weekend!! I will try to get some before pics this week!!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!!