Five on Friday

Happy Friday everyone! Do you have exciting plans for Halloween? We are getting together with our baby group on Sunday. We bought Amelia a monkey costume for $5 off a buy and sell site, so we'll see if she is actually going to wear it. I have a feeling not, but that's okay :)

{one} thank you everyone for your comments on Brian's birthday post. Definitely the best birthday present that he gives me each year. Love that man so much!

{two} my birthday wasn't super exciting (I was in Edmonton for work and got back at 8pm), so we didn't do anything that night. I was definitely spoiled by my family and friends, and of course Brian. I'm a lucky lady!

{three} don't forget to sign up if you haven't already for the Christmas blog swap! Last day to sign up is November 4, 2016. Spread the word!

{four} since I was gone for work Monday to Wednesday, Amelia and Brian got to have lots of time together. I sure missed her though! But being able to sleep alone and without any worries, was pretty darn wonderful! We Facetimed each night though, so I knew they were having fun and she was surviving without me :)

{five} have a great weekend everyone!
 

30th Birthday Post - Brian

Once again its that time where I do my best to try to convey through words how important Leigh is to me, and once again I am sure I won't make it close to getting it right. To Leigh, I apologize. To her readers, I'm sorry that you will never get to know how amazing Leigh really is.

This was taken pretty much one year ago, and look how young she looks!! So much has changed in this last year with this beauty, so much maturing. And Amelia has changed a whole bunch too :)

What I really love about this photo is how natural Leigh is as a mother. She has adapted to the role of "mom" so seamlessly that it amazes me. Look how happy Leigh is, and how happy Amelia is. Its crazy how Leigh can put her arms around Amelia and Amelia is comforted to contentment. When I would try to comfort Amelia it usually resulted in screaming and reaching for mommy. It was hard for Leigh, so hard, to barely have any time to herself. And it was so hard for me, to not be wanted by my baby, and to not be able to give relief to my wife. Now, a lesser person would complain, and whine, and begin to resent being needed. But Leigh would take her every time, and every time Amelia would smile, calm down, and be content. 

This year has gone by so fast. It seems like a couple months ago I was sitting at this keyboard, typing away at the last birthday post, but so much has happened since then. Not major, big Europe trip type stuff, but the little things we use to judge the advancement of our lives. 

Amelia has developed so much it is unbelievable. She seemed like such a big girl when she pulled herself up for the first time, and every time she does something new I think "wow, she is getting so big/so old/so independent. The number of "first time" events that have happened in the last year is staggering.

With advancement comes challenges, and once again Leigh is there to take on those challenges. Does Leigh do everything perfectly? Absolutely not! Mistakes are made and learned from. But does Leigh do everything with love as the most important motivating factor? She absolutely does. The love between Leigh and Amelia is palpable, and I wish I could bottle it up and use it whenever I feel sad or lonely, because just a pinch of Leigh's love is enough to get anyone through anything.

Look at how happy Amelia is, it fills my heart to see the love between these two.

I have a beautiful wife, who has made with me a beautiful family. I am lucky to have her in my life, and love her to death. And I am willing to accept that I am no longer married to a girl in her twenties. I am married to a woman/mom/amazing 30 year old, who will always make me laugh and make me feel loved.

Mi Familia

Well, that's all from me this year, I'm sure you will hear from me next year.

-Brian

Scenes from the weekend

One of these days I promise to blog more than just on Monday's. Ah well, let's see what we were up to this weekend:

{friday} after work, I went home for a bit before getting changed and heading out The Last Best with Brie, Ange, Leslie and Jen for my early birthday dinner. It was great catching up with everyone! And thanks again for coming out :)

{saturday} Brian and Justin went biking, so Amelia and I hung around the house for a bit before heading to the pumpkin giveaway that one of the realtors in our neighbourhood puts on. They just ask you to bring a donation for the food bank, which is easy to do.  We had walked up there with the wagon, and headed back home. Amelia didn't want to get out when we got home, so we ended up walking around the super rich area near us and she loved it. 

 
Amelia went down for nap around 12:45pm, and I crawled into bed myself and had a wonderful nap! I miss mat leave for all of the naps that I took. Once she was up from her nap, we just hung around the house before taking Amelia for her first hair cut. She was having NONE of it, so zero pictures were taken, haha. We didn't do anything major to it, just trimmed up the back so it would be a little more even.

waiting our turn

{sunday} I met up with Ange, Leslie and Jen for a spin class at Illume hot yoga. I was sweating from the get go and it was a butt kicking class! Highly recommend. The other ladies stayed for a yoga class, but I headed out to pick up a couple things at the mall before heading home. When I got home, Amelia was down for a nap, so I crawled into bed again. 

When she was up, Brian had gone to get groceries so I took her and Harley for a walk.  The rest of the day/night was spent making dinner, getting my stuff together for the week and watching tv.

Tell me: how was your weekend?

Scenes from the weekend

For not having any plans this weekend, we had a good one!  Let's rewind to last Thurday:

{thursday} that night, I went to a surf set class that Alison was teaching. Don't worry, I asked her first and promised I'd pretend not to know her. She had no reason to be nervous as she taught a challenging class and seemed so natural at it.

{friday} I had the day from work, so Amelia went to the dayhome so I could get some packing done. After Brian and her left in the morning, I laid in bed catching up on the RHOC and then started the Justin Timberlake documentary on Netflix. Finally got some motivation and started to pack. I think I got 8-10 boxes done, and still have a bunch more to do. In the afternoon, I went to take Harley for a run, but my stomach had other plans once we left, so it ended up being a bunch of walking. Brian and Amelia got home around 4pm and neither of us felt like cooking, so we picked some pizza and hung out for the night.

Just hanging out eating cheerios without clothes

{saturday} we had zero plans for the day, so we decided to go check out a place called Bro'kin Yolk for breakfast.  We got there around 8:30am and didn't have to wait at all. The food was good, but not sure it was that good for the price (it's a bit expensive for a breakfast place). After breakfast, we stopped at Home Depot to look at washer and dryers as we need a set for our new place. 

We went for a family walk around 11:30am and Amelia ended up falling asleep ten minutes into the walk. Instead of trying to transfer her, we ended up going for a way longer walk then we planned on. Luckily, it was a fairly nice day out. 

We didn't do much else for the rest of the day. Just hung around at home. 

{sunday} in the morning, Brian went for a mountain bike ride with Justin (not even sure why I tell you anymore- just assume they go every weekend, haha).  I saw on Instagram that one of my cousins who lives in Ontario and I haven't seen in years was in Calgary, so we met up for coffee in East Village. After that, we walked into St. Patrick's Island so Amelia could play. Amelia loved my cousin and held her hand for so long walking back, which she never does with Brian or I. It was nice to catch up with her!

Amelia fell asleep on the drive home, but she luckily transferred to the crib and slept for another 1.5 hours. I took Harley for a slow 5km run {why did I ever stop running?!} and then went to pick up some more moving boxes from a lady that I found on FB.  

And that was pretty much our weekend. How was yours?

Canadian blogger christmas swap 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s right, it’s Canadian blogger Christmas swap time. Lindsey and I are excited to be hosting it for the 5^th year in a row. We love how excited people get about it and how people come back each year to participate. Plus, it’s a fun way to find new Canadian blogs and of course get an exciting package in the mail.

Here are the details

• the swap is only open to Canadian's with active blogs
• you must be willing to share your package that you receive on your blog. Feel free to share on Instagram too with the hashtag #canadianbloggerchristmas
• leave a comment on this post (or Lindsey's) by November 4, 2016 if you want to participate
• you will have to spend $20 (before shipping) on the package
• the package must include an ornament. You are more than welcome to add anything else you want to the package

Other important dates to keep in mind

• partners will be announced on both of our blogs the week of November 7-11, 2016. You will also receive an email with your partners information
• packages must be mailed out by Friday December 2, 2016
• the link up will be posted on my blog on December 14, 2016

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Lindsey or myself!

Scenes from the weekend

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Full on turkey and stuffing? I know that I sure am! This Thanksgiving definitely like others weather wise. We had snow all weekend! It honestly felt like Christmas and not Thanksgiving.

On Saturday morning, we packed our bags and the car up, and made the drive to Edmonton. It was snowing on and off, but the highways luckily weren't too bad. We dropped our stuff and Harley off at my in-laws, and headed over to my BIL's house to see our nieces. We ended up hanging out there for the afternoon and having Chinese take out for dinner. Brian and his dad went to the Oilers game that night, so I went back to my in-laws to put Amelia to bed. She had a nap on our drive down, so she ended up falling asleep at 6pm. Gah! I had to wake her up and she was SUPER grumpy, so she went to bed shortly after 7pm. 

Sunday morning it was snowing even harder! It looked like Christmas out. Not cool Mother Nature! I took Harley for a walk in the snow and then we went back over to my BIL's house. The girls played all day and I helped my MIL make dinner. It was a busy, but good day. Seeing Amelia play with her cousins was awesome as they all got along so well. 

It's nearly impossible to get them all to look at once!

Amelia and I slept over at my BIL's as my nieces wanted Amelia to, so after the girls were in bed, we finished cleaning up and I was in bed shortly after that. So tired!

Yesterday morning we had breakfast with the girls and then we packed up and made the drive back home. Amelia had a sleep on the way home, which meant I also fell asleep. We got home around 12:30pm, so we spent the afternoon putting stuff away, getting groceries and doing laundry. 

Tell me: how was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Five on Friday

Happy Friday everyone! And happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian friends :)

{one} I was mindlessly scrolling through FB the other night, and came across this:

I was seriously laughing so hard at some of the responses! Maybe it's because I think farts are hilarious. But here a few examples: Pitch Perfect, Gone with the Wind, etc. Come on, you know you laughed and thought about it ;)

{two} I am so excited for stuffing. Even more so that Brian's brother won't be at the dinner, so no fighting over the left overs ;)

{three} it snowed today :( Fingers crossed this stuff melts quickly and doesn't return again. Wouldn't that just be wonderful?

{four} what are you getting your kids of Christmas? I have zero ideas for Amelia especially since her birthday isn't too long after Christmas. And it's not like she NEEDS anything. 

{five} have a great weekend and Thanksgiving everyone!

Scenes from the weekend

Pretty sure I blinked and this weekend was over! At least next weekend is Thanksgiving and that means having Monday off. Plus turkey. And stuffing! 

{friday} after work, I headed straight to the mall as I was looking for some new shirts for work. I had ZERO luck! Howcome when you want to spend money, you can't find anything. But as soon as you don't want to spend any, you find everything?! I did find a pair of boots from Payless, but not sure I am going to keep them. I wanted another pair, but they didn't have my size. It's no fun having tiny hoof-like feet. After the mall, I picked up sushi for Brian and I, and then headed home.

{saturday} Brian let me sleep in and then made us a pancake breakfast. Best way to start a Saturday! Later in the morning, we went for a family 5km run in the rain, but it ended up being quite nice out. We put Amelia down for a nap around 12:30pm, and then I showered and got ready for Delainey's party. Alison planned another fabulous birthday party! Amelia had a hoot running up and down their hallway with Leo and Easton. It was so funny and cute to watch her playing with the boys. 

Couldn't get a clear picture!

After Amelia was in bed, I cleaned the kitchen floors and prepped some walls to paint the next day. 

{sunday} Brian and Justin went biking in the morning, so Amelia and I spent the morning hanging out at home. I put laundry away while Amelia read books and emptied out drawers- so helpful ;) We also went to Home Depot to get packing tape and then stopped at the park since it was such a nice day out. 

Apparently she only goes down backward now

After lunch, Amelia went down for a good nap (for once!), so I did a workout and then just laid in bed. Once she was up, Brian had gone to get groceries so we went to another park.

And that pretty much sums up our weekend!

Tell me: how was your weekend?