10&11 months

Wow, what a summer it has been! With the beautiful weather, my photography business has been busier than ever causing me to put other passions of mine temporarily on hold, such as blogging as you have noticed. That being said, we did decide to put the madness on hold for two weeks and take a real vacation - out of town, disconnected, in a little cottage by the ocean. As a result, once again, I'm combining two months of baby I's progress into a single post, and as you'll see, we have some amazing progress to share...

In your 10th month, you saw the ocean for the first time. You learned the thrill of soft sand between your toes and, of course, in your mouth. You were intrigued by seaweed and could not figure out now to avoid getting soaked by waves. While mom and dad tried to relax, you decided to work harder than ever to go beyond steps and take your first walk in that little cottage by the ocean. Amazingly, you did this in your 10th month and dad managed to catch it all on his phone! Cleverly, you perfected the 3-, 4- and 5-step on that soft sand, forgiving on the bum as you took some fantastic spills. Since then, you haven't stopped...

Now in month 11, you walk like a boss - people are shocked to see this little baby walking around like he's being doing it for years. In fact, you are now running reminding mommy and daddy the importance of child-proofing the house.You are fascinated by bags, picking up daddy's empty lunch bag and walking around like you are going to work. You like to pick up your sister's purses load them with toy cars and walk around with a cheeky look on your face. You keep growing taller and with all the running, you are slimmer than ever - looking more and more like your father every day except for that light blond hair. Also like dad, your appetite is ferocious, eating anything and everything you can get your hands on. You are no longer a fan of pureed foods, opting for finger foods and yogourt, lots of yogourt. The other night, while celebrating mom & dad's anniversary at a brasilian steakhouse, you devoured lamb, chicken, various cheeses, vegetables and somehow managed to eat until beyond when mom & dad gave up.

Your attention span is much longer and we love to watch you entertain yourself as well as play with your brother and sister. You love love love toy cars, watching them zoom down the slide and fly across the room. You get so into books, if we didn't know better, we'd think you could read. You climb everything - it's a regular occurrence to see you on top of a table after stacking chairs and toys next to it. You would think with all this running and climbing that you would be exhausted and sleep through the night... not. even. close.

After making mommy happy for many weeks with you chanting of "mum, mum, mum" you seem to have forgotten that sound now calling out for "da, da, da" - ouch. You seem to care less about talking as you can communicate very well with your eyes, facial expressions and by smashing your head when not happy. I suspect that will change very soon...

Baby I, your first year is wrapping up and we can't wait to celebrate that milestone with you... in fact, we've completely procrastinated on planning a party, so here's to hoping mom and dad can pull something off worthy of such a wonderful little boy we love so much.

Baby I was a big fan of the beach.

Twins?

celebrating 6 years

I can't believe it was 6 years ago today that I walked down the aisle to marry my best friend. This man makes my heart happy. Every day I wake up knowing I have this awesome guy by my side. I am one lucky girl. Happy Anniversary! Love you my HAH

8 & 9 months

Well, as you have noticed, I have been pretty quiet for the past month or so. Things have been extremely busy around here. This blog was meant to document our family life and leave behind something my children can look back on years down the road. Even though I have not been posting, I still plan on sharing lots of our adventures that took place in the past months. These moments now feel like they happened long ago but they are still moments I would like to capture and share with the kiddos. Hopefully this means I will be posting a bit more in the next little bit. To start off, I wanted to share Baby I's progress. I am behind as you know, so I have combined months 8 & 9.

Baby I, you have been growing and growing! I feel like this time around the baby stage went out the window very quickly. Baby I, you are an exploring machine. You are interested in everything. You like to open and close doors and pull off anything that may be on a shelf. You are crawling and can stand on your own for a good minute. You have four teeth, love to eat and I mean eat! I think you may have a bottomless pit for a stomach. You definitely get that from your father. You are eating purées but love finger foods such as blueberries, potatoes, strawberries and toast.

You love to play peek-a-boo and ball with your sister and brother. You love bath time and scream when mommy and daddy take you out. You hate having your diaper and clothes changed. You don't like to sleep - I think you are too afraid you will miss out on something.

Lastly, you made this mommy so very happy when you started saying "mum, mum, mum." You must have heard me when I told you a million times it would make me so happy if you said "mum" before "dada" because daddy already won that right with your brother and sister.

Keep growing and smiling baby boy!

easter 2014

I know I have been MIA on here but it is for good reason. I will share it with all of you soon but for now I wanted to catch everyone up on a few things...

We had a wonderful Easter and I hope all of you did as well. It was a low key one for us this year but I loved every minute of it.

It was our first Easter as a family of five. Little Miss L. and Mr. D were super excited for the Easter bunny to arrive. They had been talking about it for days as they went around the house pointing out the perfect spot they thought the bunny might leave those yummy chocolate eggs. It was hard for the kiddos to fall asleep that evening in anticipation for the morning hunt.

The morning arrived and they jumped out of bed and hurried into our room. They giggled as they told us they had seen eggs in the hallway. We had told them they had to come get us and that we were going to go on the hunt together and if they went ahead of everyone else the bunny would quickly come and gather the goodies before they could get them. Well, it seemed to work as they came right to us, but as they eagerly waited for the go-ahead to start the hunt, it was quickly put on hold. They can blame their furry friend Toby as I got up to let pup out things got a little messy (I won't go into detail) but he needed a bath. I (being the selfish mom) didn't want to miss out on the hunt so I made the kiddos eat their breakfast and told them not to dare touch any goodies they may have seen.

The hubby and I have some pretty good kids or they really just wanted their goodies as they did not leave the kitchen table. I bathed the dog (yes, exactly what I wanted to be doing on Easter morning) and quickly changed.

It was time to finally start our hunt. It was short and sweet as speedy Little Miss L. whipped around the house filling her basket before her little brother barely had a chance.

After our hunt, it was time to get the house in order as we were hosting family. It was nice to be able to stay at home and not rush off somewhere shoving kids and belongings into the vehicle.

It was a great afternoon surrounded by family and filling our bellies with more than enough sweet stuff.

Here are a few moments we captured throughout the day...

7 months

Our little bunny on Easter morning. Awesome hat by TuTu Chic Boutique.

It is over a week late but here it is. The little man is now 7 months. Okay, maybe little is not the best word to describe him, as Baby I is growing at lighting speed.

Over the past month, he has excelled. He loves trying new food and never says no to anything we put in his mouth. He is a rolling machine. In the blink of an eye he is across the room and no obstacle will stop him. He has started to master the army crawl and I love watching him as he gets mad when he can't move faster. He loves grabbing objects and tossing them anywhere he can - mommy, not-so-much as I have been whacked in the head a few times.

You still have two bottom teeth but I know there have to be more right around the corner, as you have been quite cranky lately. You still do not have much hair and the hair you do have seems to be getting lighter in colour. You love to make noises and when the opportunity arises you always grab mommy's arm to make farting noises and then giggle. You are always smiling, even when you are under the weather you still give the best smiles. You love going with mommy to get big sister from the school bus. You love to watch vehicles as they drive past.

You absolutely hate being in your car seat. You will scream bloody murder the entire time, and won't give up. You can't stand the bright sun and make the cutest face. You can't stand having your face wiped and will do anything not to have mommy come at your nose with a tissue.

You are still not sleeping through the night. I really wish this would change... I could deal with getting up even once a night but these 3-4 wake ups are starting to kill me.

The nicer weather is finally arriving and you love going for walks. It is almost a guarantee you will have a cat nap when we are out.

Each month just keeps getting better and I can't wait for it all to continue...

All smiles after his morning cereal. 

happy easter

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter. May you be surrounded by the ones you love. We are getting ready for our guests to arrive and the kids are all sugared up. I love love love these little bunnies :)

6 months

I can't believe I am writing this post already. Wow, here we are folks... Baby I has hit the 6 month mark and I need to pinch myself to be reminded this is not a dream.

Baby boy, you are growing and changing at a rapid pace. Each day, I feel like you are mastering a new task. You absolutely love to bounce. If you could eat, sleep and play in the Jolly Jumper you would be there 24/7. Even when you are not in the jumper, you have to be bouncing around on mommy's knee. You love love love Toby our dog - you are always on the look out for that little white fluff ball - you giggle as he runs by you and you and your brother love to play games with him. Your giggle is becoming louder more boisterous; I can't get enough of it.

You have cut your two bottom teeth. Let's just say that you haven't been the happiest camper around here. It has been making for some long, sleepless nights.You have been doing a great job exploring new foods. You can't seem to get enough squash and let me to tell you, you really lose your cool when you want more.

You still love to give mommy cuddles and please do not ever get over that. You are sitting up all by yourself. We just went to your 6 month check up and you weighed in at 17.5 pounds. I think you are going to be like your daddy as you are in the 95th percentile for height and the 30th percentile for weight.

Keep growing and smiling my little one. You make mommy so proud.

surprise 30th birthday party

Today, I am celebrating the last hours of my 20's. I can't believe tomorrow I will be turning 30!! Wow, hurts a little to write that.

Well, I am not one for surprises but the hubby pulled off a pretty good one yesterday. Growing up, I spent most of my time at the ice arena. I love love love figure skating. Over the years, I have not been able to hit the ice as often as I would like but now that the kiddos are getting older, I have had the privilege of introducing them to skating. With that in mind, the hubby decided to plan a surprise party at the skating arena where he rented the ice for an afternoon of fun.

I won't get into details on how he got me there but let's just say it wasn't an easy task and there may have been a lot whining and complaining about taking the kids out in the cold etc. but once I was there and I was surprised to see family and friends gathered to celebrate this old gals birthday, I quickly whipped on my skates and had an afternoon of laughter and fun.

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped my hubby prepare for my birthday shindig as it truly meant a lot to be surrounded by so much love. It was great to see lots of you enjoying a passion of mine and for those of you who did not hit the ice, maybe we can convince you to try it sometime soon. I loved watching our babies head out on the ice with smiles plastered on their faces. They soon will be skating circles around this old girl. I think we may have to make this a yearly tradition.

A huge thank you goes out to the best hubby this girl could ask for. You pulled it all together to make an awesome afternoon and pulling off a surprise, as we know isn't an easy task when it comes to surprising this momma. Love you all!

P.s. I may or may not be a little sore today!

winter family photos

Photo credits to Nicole Marie Photography

There have been many posts I have been wanting to share with all of you but this momma of three is trying her very best the last few months to learn how to function as a family of five with 3 kiddos who for the most part have been sick, running two businesses, trying to fit all the other fun stuff such as keeping our home from looking like a bomb went off, trying to take the mountain of laundry down to a wee size hill and making sure that when we open the fridge, there is something to eat inside. Wow, did you notice I have wrote "trying" several times. It is taking everything in me to make it through the last few months as I have been one exhausted momma. I can't wait for the winter weather to be over and the warm sun to lift my spirits.

Well, with that said, I was searching through the computer the other night when I came across the family photos we had taken right before Christmas. I realized I did not share these with all of you and definitely wanted too. As I have mentioned before, I am usually the one who is behind the camera and rarely have any photos with all of us. All I wanted for Christmas was a family photo.

I was lucky enough to meet a very talented photographer at a workshop. After chatting, I realized Nicole did not live too far away from us. I quickly asked her if she would be willing to take our family photos.

It was a very and very cold day, but I was determined to make it work. Let's just say as it always turns out when it comes to getting our photos done, the kids were not in the mood. They all whined and complained about the weather, having to listen to instructions and wanting to go and eat while we were supposed to be posing as one big happy family. In the end, Nicole was able to work her magic and here are a few from our session.

Don't forget to head on over to check out the talented Nicole from Nicole Marie Photography

5 months

We have hit the 5 month mark folks! The last month has been a tough one, baby boy... you have been teething and fighting an awful ear infection. Our happy and giggling baby was replaced with a little boy who wants to be held 24/7 as he can't get comfortable. We have spent several nights walking the house as you refuse to sleep. Both mommy and daddy are walking zombies these days. Mommy has been pouring hot water into her cup without the tea bag and wondering why her tea is not ready to drink. I have been placing items that should be in the refrigerator in cupboards, let's just say those items have now been tossed in the garbage bin. Your poor sister has gone to school with parts of her lunch missing. Your brother had to inform me that he could not leave the house because he had no pants. Sigh, we have our fingers crossed you are on the mend and this daze we are in will pass shortly.

On another note, you have been a rolling machine! As soon as you are placed on the bed or floor, you are quick to turn over. This is making changing your diaper extremely difficult. You have mastered blowing bubbles and love love love to do the motor boat as soon as we place a spoonful of food in your mouth. You are eating cereal, carrots, peas and sweet potatoes. You love your sweet potatoes and can get quite angry when there is none left.

Your giggle is still infectious and I swear the other day I heard you say mum (wishful thinking) I swear you are going to be our only child to say mum first or so I hope. You are becoming stronger and stronger as the days pass and your personality is beginning to shine. You are obsessed with your toes and I don't blame you - they are the sweetest things ever!