Christmas 2015

Christmas is always great, always. I love it beyond words. But I remember one of my least favourite Christmases. A few years ago, the Christmas before I was pregnant with Benjamin. It was lovely, don't get me wrong. 

Billy and I had been married for over a year, things had slowed down from all of that chaos. Things were good. And Christmas was good. 

But it was quiet. Too quiet. It wasn't spoken of, not even between Billy and I, but I knew there were people missing. I knew that it was time to bring little ones into this family of ours. I knew I didn't want another Christmas to go by without them.

The following Christmas I was pregnant, and every Christmas since has been....right. Complete. And it just gets better and better. This year, Sawyer's first Christmas, was the best yet. So perfectly complete. I am so, so grateful to be surrounded by my boys, my Mom and Dad, Billy's family, everyone. During the holidays, and every other day of the year.

Mothers.

I know there are about 768765 posts on all the blogs about the meaning of motherhood, but I have to add my own, because I want to remember what this time felt like when I'm old and grey and sobbing because my boys never call me. So.

Mother's Day was this past weekend, and we were lucky enough to spend some time with my Mom, Billy's Mom, and both of our lovely Grandmother's. We had a little present for each of them and drank lots of tea, it was really great. I don't see my Grandma nearly as much as I would like to. I love her so, so much.

Anyway, the day is all about appreciating Moms for all that they do. And a lot of the time, I admit, I think about how being a Mom makes me sleepy. But no, being a Mom is really everything. I remember working with Moms over the years and they all gushes nonstop about their kids and I thought to myself that one day I would be a mom and I would not do that. Because people without kids don't care nearly as much as you do about how cute it was when your kid said that word in the cutest wrong way or when he drew a circle for the first time. BUT. It all changed. I'm that Mom all the way. I take seven billion pictures of my boys each day and being a Mom has put my entire 'other' life (you know, career, interests, and whatnot) on hold. And some days I get frustrated by that, but it's all so, so worth it.

One day I'll be back at a job and I will miss these days. I will miss fixing us breakfast each morning, filling up cups of milk all day long. Going to the park, the library, washing hands and faces over and over and over. Reading books about bears and trains and dinosaurs. Bathtimes and storytimes and rocking little ones to sleep. It's all SO good.

My Mom and my Grandma are my heroes. I mean, they've done it all. They are both such good examples for me to follow, to strive for. My Mom is the most driven person I know, she is such a hard worker and she never gives up on anything. She has such a positive outlook on things (not my strong suit) and always encourages me to try things again, or to try things differently. Just to try. Because that's all you can really do, right? 

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there, current moms, future moms, pet moms, everyone. It's such a special thing to be, and we are all so very lucky.

Easter Morning 2014

We've never really made a big deal about Easter around here until this year. We waited until after breakfast so that Ben would get a tiny bit of non-chocolate food into him today (last year for that to work I bet) and then we set him off hunting. Oh boy, was he ever happy.













I also took a little video which is cute but terribly, terribily filmed. At some point I was watching Ben and inadvertently filmed just my arm pointing at where his present was hiding that's very reminiscent of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. It's pretty awful. But the Ben cuteness makes up for it.



Anyway, happy Easter to our family and friends! Hope the Easter bunny was good to you!

Our first Easter Egg hunt!

After a rather crazy day with the boys yesterday (tantrums, oh so many tantrums) we had a perfect morning today at Dyment's farm. They have a pancake breakfast and egg hunt every year, and this was our first visit. We go in the fall for the pumpkin picking/wagon ride stuff, but I think we will have to make this egg hunt business an annual event too!





Ya, I take pictures of random farms. I mean, who doesn't love a good farm picture?







Benjamin has a tiny mini freakout when the egg hunt started (so many screaming kids) but he soon lightened up and was pretty excited about the nine eggs he collected. And let me tell you, when he realized he could actually EAT those eggs, and that they were made of CHOCOLATE, well that was another thing all together. Day, made.

And despite all the greyness, it was actually really great weather. Overcast and mild, so nice after the longest winter in all of eternity (right?) so I'm not complaining one bit. No winter coats!! YES!!



Sawyer was cozy in his little fuzzy suit and slept almost the entire time. (What is my hair doing in this picture??) It was such a great morning. I wish there were little kid events like this every weekend...I might like them even more than the kids do...

Easter is coming!

This is the first year that Ben is really going to be into the whole Easter business, and we are SO excited to give him some little surprises! 

We have an egg hunt planned that will be plastic eggs filled with Thomas trains...most of his trains are Imaginarium trains, he only has a few of the actual Thomas set so he's going to freak out. We are going to have them lead to this little backpack!!



Via Walmart

Yep, he's going through a major Thomas phase right now so he is going to be thrilled. The backpack will be filled with some little toys, chocolates, and The Amazing Machines Book Set.  He has Amazing Airplanes and it's one of his favs so we can't wait to read them all with the boys! 

We are also going go to a nearby farm for an egg hunt and to meet the Easter Bunny. So excited! Ok, so I might be more excited than I should be. Not a bit sorry!

Our Christmas Tree

Over the weekend we put up our tree! I swear this gets more and more fun each year now that we have Ben. He LOOOOOVED the whole process. He's the best little helper and he got super excited about every single ornament. 





I can't wait to see his little face when he sees what treats are hidden under the tree for him on Christmas morning! :)

Holiday Polish - Belugaria by Essie

How badly do I want this polish?

So so perfect for the holidays. LOVE.

Image via Nordstrom

Halloween

Have you ever seen a cuter dinosaur? I mean. Come on.

Valentine's Day Date Night Idea

Billy and I are planning a relaxing night in, and not on Valentines Day itself but after a very long gruelling work week for Billy, so we're both pretty excited for that. But I've been looking at some fun things to do and I love that they are playing classic movies at theatres over the next few months, including Love Story in February. Perfect, right? 

Image via Glamamor

Christmas 2013

Happy New Year! What, I'm like a week late? Crap. I know, I got caught up in the leisurely holiday lifestyle of wearing pjs all day long and not thinking about computers or blogging or shop stuff. It was (is) bliss!

Our Christmas and New Year's were just perfect. Last year it was a little bit crazy, but this year I feel like we really got to soak it all in. Ben had SO much fun. He loved opening presents, Christmas brunch (including Christmas brunch paper crowns, oh yes), and being the centre of attention (which he normally doesn't like, but in the smaller groups I think he was having a pretty good time).

Anyway, these are a few of the pictures we took over the holidays. I will have a New Year's post up one of these days too (since I have a bit of a resolution obsession). 

Until then, enjoy!!