Sad To See You Go

Over the weekend we went to my dad, stepmom, and youngest sister's for their "so long and thanks for all the fish" party; they're moving to the island in a few days. 

It's really sad to see them go since we just moved back this year.  We've tried to see them once a month so Lynden can build a relationship with them (he's all about his aunt and they have pretend sleepovers quite often).  It's been really nice to see them as much as we have and I don't really want to go back to seeing them a few times a year. 

Thankfully, we'll see them in 2 months (really, it'll be like 1 month to them since they'll spend most of November unpacking and settling in) at Christmas time.  We try to get over in the early spring to visit with my stepdad so now we'll just have to extend our trip (drats, twist my rubber arm) and head up to visit with them too. 

If I manage to figure out how to go back to work with my company in the new year I'll have to book all my vacation time right off the bat (trip to the Island, Edmonton in the summer, and 2 possible other trips). 

My Son's A Guppie

Yesterday Lynden finished his first set of swimming lessons.  I wasn't really sure how he was going to take to it since we've had issues in the bath over the last 18 months.  He hated getting his hair washed and it was a whole big crying sobbing mess anytime we even mentioned washing his hair.  Thankfully he's been better about it for the last 6 months.

A few days after Lynden's birthday was his first swimming lesson and wow!  I expected tears, I expected crying but I did not expect what happened that first night. 

1st class

Five Question Friday - Oct 28

1. Do you prefer cotton, silk, or flannel sheets?
Usually cotton, but we have a memory foam mattress that is painfully hot in the summer so then it would be nice to have silk.  Not that we have any :-(

2. What time zone are you in?
Pacific Time Zone

3. What's your favourite part of the holiday season?
Spending time with family, even more so that we have kids now.  It's great that our kids get to know everyone now that we're back. 

4. What's your favourite "wintery" drink? (it doesn't have to be alcoholic)
Tea, I love tea.  Especially Marco Polo Rouge, not that I know where to get it now.  My sister used to work at a high end tea shop and they sold it there but the store doesn't sell it anymore.  After 6 years I need to find a new flavour of tea (once my stash runs out).

5. In your opinion, what's the worst job in the world?
It sounds like a cop out but I think it sucks to be a politician.  Nothing you do is "right" and there's always a lot of people who hate you.  There's no winning.

Isn't That Pintresting

I haven't been on Pintrest much this week; Alyssa hasn't been sleeping well which means I'm not sleeping well.  This means I haven't completed my Pintrest projects yet, although I went out today to buy what I need for one.  Hopefully I can finish it by the end of the weekend. 

Here's some of my favourite stuff I've pinned:

Dress
I adore this dress

Weekly Calendar
I love this, sadly I have no where to put it :-(

Girl's Closet
I this this is Adorable.  Perfect for any little girl

Mojito Cupcakes
What's not to like? 

Photo Collage
What a wonderful idea

Guitar Coat Hooks
Cool and different

The truth about Santa
Anyone who has kids needs to look at this
it's BRILLIANT

Machu Picchu
If I only go one place in my life this will be it





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Pumpkin Carving

I was so excited for pumpkin carving this year.  I had this image in my mind of Danny, Lynden and I laughing as we dug out of pumpkins and the excitement building while we carved out our designs. 

I think I was living in the 50's in my daydream.  It went nothing like that.

Lynden and I were going to clean out the pumpkins during the day so it would be less work when Danny got home.  When Alyssa went for her nap we grabbed out pumpkins and tools to get started.

I don't know what face he was going for

Lynden refused to put his hand in the pumpkin while I gutted all 4 of them.  While I gutted the last pumpkin Lynden was finally willing to get his hands slightly dirty while helping grandma pull the seeds out of the bowl everything went into.

Why?

We have entered a new stage of toddlerhood; the "Why?" stage. 

Thankfully Lynden hasn't discovered he can keep asking why to the answer to the previous why and so on (I think I may lose my mind when he does).  At the moment anything I say is responded to with "why?". 

We have to go to the store.  Why? Because we need food so we can eat.

It's dinner time.  Why?  Because we need to eat dinner.

You need to have a bath?  Why?  Because your dirty.

Stop throwing toys.  Why?  Because we don't throw things.

It's quiet time.  Why?  Because mommy needs quiet time.

Stay here, mommy needs to go downstairs.  Why?  Because I need to do laundry.

Stay out of the kitchen when I'm sweeping.  Why?  Because you walk through my dust pile.

You need to clean up your toys.  Why?  Because I said so, that's why!

Oh the joys of having a toddler.

Isn't That Pintresting

This week I haven't been pinning as much as I normall would.  No, I wasn't sick I was trying to organize my boards a bit better.  My 'Food' board was getting to be too much so I made 2 new boards from it (not as easy as it sounds since moving pins from one board to another isn't as fast as you'd think it would be). 

I've also been getting ready to start some projects (I was all ready to do one yesterday but Danny vetoed it at the last minute - he didn't think I had enough stuff, so now I have to go shopping *drats*). 

Anyways, here's what I have been pinning this week:

wall colour for the bedroom?

Flavoured Water
And I love the pitcher

Hanging Puppet Theatre

Mocha Truffle Cheesecake
Hello!!

Bookcase made from drawers

Santa footprints

Scarf
I adore this

ADOREABLE!

Ginger and Cilantro Baked Talapia

I'm looking forward to this next week, there are 2 different projects I'm hoping to do plus pumpkin carving tomorrow.  So, hopefully next week I'll be able to show off what I've done. 




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Family And Holidays

When Danny and I moved to the Okanagan one of the big changes for me was Christmas.  I grew up spending the holidays with my family and now that we had moved away things were going to change.  Not only were we living away but now there was a second family added to the mix. 

We made the decision to split the holidays; one year in the Okanagan and the next back on the coast.  However, the Christmas back with our lower mainland family was still split.  We would spend Christmas eve with Danny's family (we did Murder Mysteries on Christmas Eve), opened gifts with them the following morning and then head to my grandparents in the late morning to open gifts with my family and have dinner. 

We celebrated Christmas in the Okanagan twice; both years we were lucky enough to not have to travel during the day.  We opened gifts in the morning and then hosted dinner. 

This arrangement has suited us really well because we got to see everyone and it solved the fact that Danny and I don't agree on how the day should play out. 

Out And About: Fire Hall And 2 Pumpkin Patches

It's funny, I can have nothing going on for an extended period of time and then have a million different things planned in a short period of time.  Since Lynden's birthday we've had a lot of down time and now we're getting back into a busy time with this weekend kicking it off.
A while back I decided it was Pumpkin Patch time and arranged things with some cousins.  After a date and location was chosen we discovered the fire hall near our house was having an open house and scrambled to rearrange out pumpkin picking so we could do both. 

After we figured it all out my mother-in-law mentioned she had bought tickets to another pumpkin patch in the hopes we could go with her while my sister-in-law and niece were visiting this weekend.  More rearranging and we had our weekend plans; a fire hall and 2 pumpkin patches.

It worked out Very well. 

Saturday morning we headed down to the fire hall, where Lynden had a blast.  He loved oogling over the fire trucks and all the equipment.  After wandering around he wanted to try out the obstacle course, which ended with spraying pylons with a fire hose.  He was hesitant but in the end it was his favourite part.  Even on Sunday he asked if he could use the fire hose again. 

on the back of the fire truck

Five Question Friday - Oct 14

Today my baby girl is 9 months old; how times flies. 

Today is also Five Question Friday, so here we go. 




1. Do you prefer ice cream in a bowl or in a cone?
It depends on where I am.  If I'm out and about I like it in a cone.  If I'm at home I want it in a bowl.  I don't know why this is but it bugs me to have it the other way around.

2. What 3 things do you love the smell of?
Freshly bathed kids (I love snuggling with my kidlets after a bath, I just breath them in), the laundry soap I used on Lynden's clothes when he was a baby (Purex Baby), and goodies baking in the oven. 

3. Giftacards or no? (In regards to gift giving...)
Yes, I like to give them and receive them.  It can be hard to find that right thing for some people so a gift card is perfect.  I like getting them too, it allows me to get something for myself that I can spend time choosing.  It's wonderful when it comes to clothes; I don't save money to buy myself clothes unless I'm in dire need of something so it's great to have that plastic card in my wallet for when I see something I want. 

4. What sports did you play in highschool, if any, and do you still play them?
I played volleyball for 1 year in highschool and would have continued if I hadn't hurt my knee when I was 14.  It's never been the same since so I don't play anymore.  Although if I had a chance to play a few fun games I'd be in, even though I'd pay for a few days afterwards. 

5. Were you in a highschool band? What instrument did you play?
No, I wasn't a band geek in highschool - I don't have a musical bone in my body.  

Isn't That Pintresting

I've become a full on Pintrest addict, there's no escaping it now.  Last week I did a post called My Pintresting Week and I've decided I like showing off my favourite pins of my week so I'm going to make this a weekly post. 

Every Thursday you're welcome to come and see what I've been pinning and if you have a Pintrest account link up for everyone to see.  If you've completed any projects feel free to brag about it in your post (maybe it'll motivate me to actually do some of mine too).






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Don't have a Pintrest account?  What's wrong with you??

Here's what I've enjoyed this week:


Heart Sandwich
Cute idea for Birthdays

Tic Tac Toe Board
Fantastic DIY gift idea



Monster Cupcakes
I think  these are beyond cute



Chocolate Cake
OH.MY.GOD



Watering Can Waterfall
If I had nice stairs I'd so do this



Dinosaur Cake
I see me making this in a few years



Heart Artwork
I don't know if it's the design or the colour
but I Love this

 

Christmas Elves
Lynden's at an age where we can make holiday ornaments



Raindrops
I adore this photo
I want to have it printed and framed



Trinity Library in Dublin
I'd probably stand in awe for hours before I'd start looking at books



Have you seen my pants?
:-)

DIY Bows
Made from children's drawings
LOVE it

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars
There are a Must make

One Lovely Blog Award

Amber at Sneakers Over Stilettos was kind enough to award me with One Lovely Blog

But there are rules to the award, so I must follow them.  The rules are:

1. Share 7 facts about yourself
2. Award 15 blogs with the award

7 facts about myself:

Sweet And Squirmy

I have this cute, adorable, smart, sweet daughter.  She melts my heart every time she smiles at me and she brings such joy to our lives.  Until I need to change her diaper or get her dressed.  Then I'd sell her to gypsies. 

Alyssa is so busy doing anything and everything she doesn't have 90 seconds for me to change her bum.  I can honestly change a diaper in 90 seconds or less.  It now takes me 3-5 minutes, if I'm lucky.  I can get her diaper off but the moment she feels air on her bum she's outta here.  She flips and crawls as fast as she can away from me.  It takes me 3-10 attempts to get her back down long enough to get the diaper under her bum, it then takes me another 5 or so tries to get it done up.  By the time she's half way across the room I discover it's too loose and if she poops I'll have a big mess to clean up.  So we try again.  Most of the time; sometimes I say "fuck it" and hope with all my might she doesn't poop before I get some pants on her.

Getting her dressed is sightly worse.  I can get a diaper shirt on her no problem, but pants... oh.my.god.  I get one leg in and the kicking starts.  Every time I get the second leg in she's got the other one out and she's rolling over to escape.  I try sitting her and sliding her legs in.  This is Very hard when she's crawling away from me.  I usually win the battle when I slide the leg up as close to her knee, if not over, as possible so when she kicks or runs away the pants are too hard to get off.  Although she might be learning how to pull her pants off.  One nap she was screaming so I went in to check on her and her pants were off.  I asked Lynden if he pulled them off and he said no, baby sister had done it.  I don't know if I believe him, I know I don't want to.  I'll never get her dressed if she can pull her own pants off.

Turkey Turkey

We hosted our first big holiday dinner this weekend; 16 people in total (including Alyssa). 

My sister and her boyfriend came out early Saturday to help with the cooking and cleaning, since Danny was working all day.  My grandma arrived about 5 minutes before them and helped set up the turkey (stuffing it and taking the rest to make at her house) and pointing us in the right direction. 

There has been some concern about my oven since I had make cookies earlier in the week and they took 10 extra minutes to cook.  We monitored the oven a few days before, with an oven thermometer, to see how hot it actually was (it's slow to pre-heat) and figured out where the right temperatures were. 

We did the math with a 20lb bird and with the oven figured out we knew the turkey had to be in the oven between 11-12 for it to be done for a 5:30-6 dinner.  By 11:30 the big ol' bird was in the oven. 

At 3:05pm it was done; 90 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Five Question Friday - Oct 7

1. What's your go to comfort food or sweet?
Pretty much whatever I have in the house for snacking.  Sometimes it's sweet stuff (this week Coconut and Lime Sugar Cookies), sometimes chips or popcorn, sometimes fruit.  It varies all the time.

2. What's the most romantic place you've ever been to?
That's a tough one.  Probably Helcion Hot Springs with Danny one year.  It was a  wonderful cabin for 2 days away from Everything.  I so want to go back one day.

3. What's your favourite thing about fall/Halloween?
Besides hockey season starting, I love all the fall things I get to do with the kids.  Pumpkin patches, corn maze, hayrides, etc.  I also love fall food - casseroles, stews, chili, soup. 

4. How would you spend 24 hours alone?
Ooh... I'd like to think I'd read, sleep, relax but in reality I'd sleep in, read a bit and then get bored.  I like having my 'me time' but it's more fun when I get to hang out with people. 

5. Does your husband bring you flowers?  Are you the bring-me-flowers kinda girl?
Yes! I am a bring-me-flowers kinda girl.  Are there girls out there that don't want flowers???  And yes, my husband does, occasionally, bring me flowers.  I say occasionally because we're averaging once a year.  He's always sweet about it though.  A very thoughtful card or Beautiful flowers or a creative way to give them to me. 
The very first time I got flowers from him was when we had just started dating.  Some friends of his were down visiting and I met up with them back at Danny's place after work one night.  After staying up and drinking with them for a bit I decided to head to bed when they went to the liquor store.  I'm not sure how long they were gone for but I was out when they got back.  Danny came into the bedroom and told me the mattress was falling off and to roll over so he could fix it.  After rolling over, half asleep, he shook the bed for a moment, gave me a kiss and left.  I promptly went back to sleep.  A few hours later I rolled over and woke up because my head was on something that was crinkling.  When I turned on the light to see what it was I discovered a single rose lying on the pillow for me.  It was very sweet.

Lillies from Danny & Lynden for Mother's Day

The Lingering Cold

I've had this simple slight cold all week and it's starting to drive me nuts - but so are my kids (they go hand in hand, hear me out). 

Normally a cold like this wouldn't slow me down much, but the key to that is some sleep.  It hit me really hard late last week and last Saturday I got to sleep in and did I sleep in!  At 10 Danny woke me up - I haven't slept in until 10 in....







that long. 

What A Pintresting Week

I've mentioned before how I love Pintrest.  It's way too addicting.  This is are a few of the pins that I've enjoyed discovering this week.

Ruffle Top
This top is just friggin' adorable. 

Closet Storage Idea
Would be perfect for when the kids get their own rooms

Water Fountain Attachment
If I can find them everyone is getting them in their stockings

Zucchini Black Bean Rice Skillet
Looks so yummy

French Toast Kabobs
A nice Sunday morning breakfast

Birthday Favour Idea
Might be a nice idea for Alyssa's birthday

Halloween Snack
Healthy and creepy; perfect for a little boy



Wine Cave
I'd LOVE to have a wine cave
and a house that needed one





This is what has caught my eye this week.  What caught your attention?

  Feel free to follow me on Pintrest