Monday Already??

Clearly this week is going to zoom right on by while I'm coping with Noah turning one THIS weekend!! This seems like such a big deal to me and I can't even pretend to not be a little sad about it, although I am super happy at the same time! He seriously is just the best thing that has happened to Mike and I - we are soo blessed!!

So this week we will be party prepping and getting ready for Noah's big day!! Much like we did this past weekend!

Friday night was low key. We went into town to pick up my car (oil change) and grabbed some groceries and dinner!! We came home, ate and then hung out!

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast and then we braved Costco on a weekend! It's always dangerous when M comes... We spent too much money, but got most of the things I needed for the party, a few extras,  aside from produce, which I will get later this week somehow! Noah had some crazy hair going on while we ate out for lunch!

Saturday afternoon M and I cleaned out behind the bar while Noah napped and then I decided to try a little Pinterest project! We all know how I love Kelsey's spinach dip, so when I saw a recipe on Pinterest that said it tasted just like it, I had to try it! I followed the recipe up until it called for a tablespoon of red bell pepper, well I assumed this was a spice... And couldn't find it at the grocery store, turns t they meant fresh! Oops!! My bad! So our recipe didn't have this! I also forgot to put the cayenne pepper under the cheese on top.

But it was soo yummy!!! We will totally make this more often!! It was also soo easy to make!!

Gracie was tuckered out after her walk with Daddy and Lily while I put Noah down. Up next was the Dirty 30 work out! I actually really enjoy that one!! We have also gone back to following the meal plan instead of calorie counting because we weren't dropping the weight like we expected to that first week of round 2! 

After our work out I watched the movie The Best Of Me, which is another movie based off of a Nicholas Sparks book. I love all his movies! This one was good too and without spoiling the ending completely, I wasn't expecting that ending!! 

Sunday morning Noah woke us at 5:30 with much surprise to our eyes, he was sitting there looking at us (through the monitor)! Sitting being the biggest shock! He just learned to sit up on his own Friday but we still weren't expecting to see him sitting up in his crib!! Little bum! He had his bottle and went back to bed until 8 and I slept in until 9! 

We met C and S for breakfast at 10 and had a nice catch up! Then we worked away at laundry! Grandma and Grandpa popped in for a visit with Noah before his afternoon nap and they had fun playing! 

It was a nice low key day!! We finished up the night with yoga and then I watched the Grammy's!! 

Loved Taylor Swifts dress! Loved Gwen Stefani and Adam Levines performance!! I was happy to see Sam Smith win and of course Beyoncé!! I was happy to see Miranda Lambert win best country album! I don't get the Kayne West interuption... 

Oh Hey Friday

I was going to post Noah's 11 month update today - you know because I am behind, but I just had too much to share from my week!! 

Yesterday was a busy fun day, we headed to London to go and get Noah's passport and of course I forgot Noah's stroller... That part was not as much fun! I lucked out and the wait wasn't AS bad as it would have been if I had been 2 minutes later - they were lined up out the door behind me! 

I am pretty sure I heard Noah say Mamama while we were waiting in line, but I couldn't get him to say it again without seeming like that crazy lady! So now we will wait to hear it again! Haha. 

Noah's passport should arrive in 2 weeks, just in time for our trip! 

After we finished up at the passport office we headed to my Aunt's house where my cousin J was staying with little Briar! It was great to squeeze in a visit because we don't get to see them that often, although we have been lucky seeing them at Christmas and then again now because her sister had a baby!

Noah enjoyed playing with Briar and was really gentle with her! He wasn't so gentle with himself and took 3 headers while we were there.. Luckily no marks!! Tough guy! When it came time to get a picture of the two of them, I think J managed to get one on her camera, but I managed to capture the sweetest moment on my phone... Briar was falling over, so Noah quickly put his arm around her. It was soo sweet: 

Either way we had a great visit! Noah was fading fast and I still wanted to hit up Target while I was in the same city as one, knowing they were starting the liquidation, however it sucked! They had no clothes, the kids stuff was hardly marked down, maybe 10-20%. I did buy Noah a rash guard for his swimshorts because we need it and a sleeper and then I got us yoga mats and new weights for 20% off, mainly because we needed them! Then we hit up the drive through bank machine - all branches should have this! Soo convienent for parents! 

Noah napped in the truck on the way home. Overall we had a great day! Apparently Noah either missed the dogs when we got back home or thought their bed looked comfy, because he headed right for it when we got home: 

After our work out last night, the ladies came over and it was nice to enjoy nice glass of wine and some appies!! 

On to Wednesday, we had our township meeting and we lucked out with having it deferred until mid-March! I ended up having to speak on behalf on the community that I was hoping to wait to do, but sure enough the meeting didn't go the way I expected and I would have hated for a decision to go the wrong way and not get a say! The best question still lies unanswered - why a 4-plex? The guy could go tomorrow and get a building permit for single house, but instead he complicates it with the idea of a 4-plex! 

It was a busy week! But I am happy to see the weekend! This weekend we will be getting the house all ready for Noah's birthday next weekend! I need to get my craft on too! 

You also my have noticed I updated the banner on the blog and switched out the background! It was time for a little refresh! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! 

21 Day Fix - Round 1

Well we made it and without a doubt is was a challenge, but seeing the results made the biggest difference!! I am not quite ready to share our before and after pictures yet. Heck I may never be, but thats where my self-consciousness comes into effect. But I will share our results in numbers!

After 21 days, Mike lost a total of 11.25 inches overall and 9 pounds! I lost 6 pounds and 10.75 inches overall!

Now I know I touched on this before, but the work outs are intense, but I am happy to say that despite them being hard, they are doable now. It's a good kind of pain and we are capable of doing soo much more than that first week! Physically we feel stronger! I am feeling muscles that I know haven't been worked in a very long time! 

So are we going to do another round? Yes. We are a little less strict with the meal plan, but still following it for the most part. I am calorie counting this round with my fitness pal. I look forward to seeing how the results compare! It is just 21 days... That's what I keep reminding myself!! 

I will say that one thing that does suck is how often your weight will fluctuate in a month! I do find that drinking a whole lot of water helps big time, but it is just making sure I am taking in at least 4 of my contigo bottles a day!

I will say being in this healthy journey with M is really motivating! We have both had nights where we likely wouldn't have worked out, but because we are doing it together, we push each other and when one of us being "lazy" during the work out, we rattle each other to keep going! It is just what we need! 

Less than a month now until St. Maarten!!! 

If I Could Keep You Little

Clearly I'm suffering with some sort of shock that my baby is turning one in just a few short weeks. They warn you about the baby blues, but not about the fact that your baby will grow up way to fast and leave you wondering where the heck time went? There is no cure for this! Soo...

If I could keep you little, I would take back all those snuggles and hold you all day long, even though I was trying to teach you independence, alone time and giving you your own space. 

If I could keep you little, I would let you sleep in my bed a little more often, but instead of me sleeping, I would stare you down and admire each and every part of you. Your eye lashes, your little button nose, your sweet pouty lips, your tiny ears and your long fingers and I would never forget how perfectly little you are. 

If I could keep you little, I wouldn't have worried soo much about what others were telling me about your weight and I would have just trusted my instinct and enjoyed my time with you instead of stressing about if you were getting enough. 

If I could keep you little I would never ever forget just how tiny you were when you were born. I'm soo upset that I can hardly remember that time already! I remember our moments, but not your size! 

If I could keep you little I would cherish each and every little smile, even though you didn't know you were smiling. We were blessed with such a happy, smiley and easy baby. 

If I could keep you little, I would erase everytime I felt stressed because you wouldn't sleep and look at it as more time spent with you. I would hold you longer, dance with you longer and rock you longer. I have cherished each and every moment with you, including the challanging ones - not that there have been very many of those! 

Oh Noah, I hope that you will always know and feel how much I love you, because my words don't always express it enough. I feel like our time together so far has gone soo fast, yet it has been soo fun and exciting to watch you grow and develop. These days I feel like everything is happening even faster. You are knocking off milestones on a daily basis and seeking more and more independence and if I am being perfectly honest, I just want to hold you and cuddle you and keep you little. But I know you need to grow up, I'm just sad to see it happening soo fast, yet I am soo very proud of you! 

January To-Do Follow up

1) set up Noah's play area in the basement - we still have some stuff to get, update the pictures in the picture frame, fill it with the rest of the toys from the playroom upstairs, etc. But he has a place just for him!

2) clean office and set up computer area - we did a make-shift job, it is not how I want it to stay!

3) file papers in said office! I will go through them, shred what can be shred and Mike will file those needed to be kept! I will also update my bill binder!! This thing has been soo useful, glad I made one! - This is half done I sorted through said papers into piles! 

4) make photo calendar 

5) work on some of Noah's photo books - I purchased 3 from photobook Canada that expire in July! - Yup, didn't happen!

6) start clean eating and 21 day fix!! M and I both up for the 21 day challenge!! We figure we have done way worse with that 30 day cleanse! You bet there will be more to come on this!!  - we started and finished this and yes it was challenging, but we actually enjoyed it!

7) enjoy a little stay-cation with Mike and Noah during M's drainage conference!  - we had a great little trip!! 

8) get basement into order as a family room - we went above and beyond this and put the new floor down too!

9) work on meal planning - we do soo much better when we do this and I am actually able to prepare dinner a lot easier when we have the meal planned and even half prepped if possible!! - we found with the 21 day fix that this was especially important and very helpful!

10) get all new IKEA furniture built! We did a monster IKEA trip bought all new dining room chairs, a cubby unit for the toy room and then we also bought a storage centre for the bathroom!! - wow it is soo nice to have a matching dining room set, although the chairs are bigger, so we cannot put as many around it, it is still plenty and we have the extra. it really changes the whole look in there! The bathroom armoire is perfect! We love it and it gives us soo much more storage, but I need to get glass frosting so you cant see whats in it!

11) start sorting out Noah's clothes that are too small into totes by size - I have 0-6 months sorted out!

Some extra things we got done:

- emptied and went through the freezer as well as defrosting it!
- made mass amounts of baby food!
- cleaned out the mudroom, rearranged it and found homes for a lot of stuff that was homeless
- switched out the bathroom mirror
- hung some art work
- cleaned out the junk basket, on top of the fridge and the junk drawer
- got started with cleaning with enjo now! 

Feels great to cross off soo many big jobs! Although I feel like just when we are getting ahead in one area, we are sliding in a different one! If we can just get everything organized - then just maintain. We just have to get there!!