January Things

Every January is Aleksy's work party and as of lately there has been a theme each year. This year, they went with a Canada theme. They always do it nicely and have had a full sit down dinner at the Hilton the past few years with bar service.

I'm not exactly sure how bull riding fits the Canada theme but since I missed out last year, I had to do it this year. I thought Id be much better at it than I was... I had some serious ab spasms after and hurt my wrist. When did I get so fragile?! I did it twice and the first time is was 12 seconds and second was 18 (but I saved myself with my other hand a couple times so I dont know if that even counts!)

Matching! Why is matching so much fun... Black and red is totally a Canada thing (right?)

Photobooth fun every year...

We have a love connection with Ilderton and seem to always end up there! We probably are going to end up there when we buy another house! Weekends in January havent been super jam packed so we were looking for ideas for a kid friendly hike and came across this path in Ilderton.

This was totally comfortable January walking weather (not like the -25 of this week).

We packed the hot cocoa and adult beverages with some snacks and took a little bench break for them. Turns out Logan likes the all natural larabars and calls them chocolate bars (winning!). He had also taken a liking to hot chocolate recently... sounds weird but you know my kid... he doesn't even like juice.

And then the snow came! We had some backyard play with the sled and Leah loved her life!

And we made plans with our friends for a tobogganing morning! All these kiddos were not afraid to go down by themselves!

Logan borrowing his friend's GT snow racer. He loved this and talked about the yellow sled afterward... Santa may have taken notes on this for next year...

And sledding sin't complete without the good old fashioned wooden sled! Logan calls it the "log sled"

Sledding's the best.... for the adults and kids!

I swear the kids asked to go behind me ha!

Let's all go down and race at the same time... we only had a couple minor collisions... no biggie!

And this makes me so happy every time. When Aleksy is snow blowing, Logan gets his multipurpose lawn mower/snow blower out and follows him around to help. Seriously does not get cuter.

Food and Wine Show Shenanigans

I always have fun at the food and wine show, but this year was extra fun (maybe because I was pregnant last year as my comparison).

I didn't drive this year! So Paul drove us and dropped us off just after the doors had opened at 12pm. We were able to snap this picture 1) after we filled our glasses at the closest wine station to the entrance and 2) before these swings became super occupied as the crowds got bigger.

Not too bad for food and wine show photo opportunity!

We always tell ourselves that we have to remember to eat! Well, this year was one of those years that we needed the reminder. I think there was less food stations and this was the only plate that we ate while there. And that craft beer was sooo yummy and a nice change from the 10 glasses of wine!

We lined up for tickets at 1:30pm for the 2:30pm tasting and we were only able to get 3 tickets (we were a group of 6!) so we took the 3 tickets and decided that we would come back at 230 and hope that some people hadn't showed for the tasting. And good thing we did because someone gave us 3 more tickets! We couldn't all sit together but we got one table with 4 and then 2 sat at another table.

This was the first year I remember actually listening to what they were saying... maybe because we did the early one or maybe because it was only 2 to taste (or a combination of both those). But best thing.. they were prosecco! My favourite.

Loving the Luke Bryan cardboard picture.

Loving the Ryan Gosling cardboard picture by myself.. and almost losing my crew in the crowd!

And this is meal #2 of the food and wine show. Actually I think we wouldn't have even got this to eat but this was right before we were leaving around 4:30pm and had extra tickets to use! That is the 1 and only glass of red I had. I stuck with white the whole show with 1 beer to mix it up!

Group shot!

It isn't quite the same as the photobooths that they used to have where they would post the pictures online for us to access but we have to keep the photobooth tradition alive so we do this!

And I think we kept it pretty together this year... no missing our rides when they arrived, no losing my coat check ticket (ok I was sober and pregnant for that) and no feeling so sick I couldn't eat pizza (circa 2016).

Holidays!

Aside from Christmas, our activities during our time off were kind of limited by our small peoples cold and fevers... and mine too (Aleksy managed to get out of this one). Logan was pretty cranky but we were able to sneak in some small adventures:

We had this (double) date night planned for a long time on Dec 28th and lucky me I was feeling super fevery that day. Nothing will stop me from going out when we have a babysitter though so I toughed this one through.

We did Waldos on King for supper (because there is nowhere with space before a nights game at 6pm on a Friday!) and then headed to a nights game. Chels and I talked about our adventures in parenting and her new career plan instead of watching any of the game. I also learned that the least appealing drink when one has a fever is wine (Aleksy drank mine). And because I'm a trooper, we went out for drinks and appetizers after too! Surprisingly, the bar across from bud gardens 93 & King was not busy at all. It was awesome with half price appetizers too! We were back and in bed before midnight and my fever went away overnight!

The next big thing was our new bed was delivered on the saturday after the game (boxing day specials!). We wasted no time and Aleksy and this super duper helper put together our new headboard (that was sitting in the garage for 3 months!).

I didn't know just how much our old queen hard mattress sucked until we got this amazing soft King. The rest of our room will have to wait until mat leave is over and I get real paychecks again!

We had a spontaneous bowling day on the Saturday too! It was a huge hit with Logan. First time bowling. Bowling with a 3 year old means that we get a turn for every 10 of his turns. He was nice enough to tell us exactly the ball that we should use when it was our turn and would get it for us.

Leah's favourite thing is to be around Logan and watch what he does so she was a happy camper too despite it being right smack dab in the middle of her nap time.

It's way too convenient that Fleetway has the DQ right inside. So we had to get ice cream of course. Haven't gone out for ice cream since the summer!

And this new years we went to my new neighbour friend's house for some festivities. I realized really close to New years that we didn't have any plans and when Stephanie invited us over, we jumped on spending new years eve with others!

We didn't stay late because... kids. But, we did get our party hats and glow sticks on and call it a party. The kids all loved it!

Logan had tons of fun at the other Logans house... particularly with his awesome selection of toys... trains AND the paw patroller.

And after the kiddos were in bed by 9, we used our gift basket from Christmas to whip up the best new years snack. Bread dip AND chutneys for our cheese. Along with a little racko and scrabble, we made it all the way to midnight then watched the ball drop and immediately went to bed at 12:01 like all the cool kids do.

And New years day, we thought it would be a great idea to get out to Storybook Gardens to the skating trail since we were given a membership for Christmas and Logan hadn't been on skates for a couple weeks. We got in the car and both kiddos zonked right out so we went for a little drive with coffee. When we got to Storybook and woke Logan up, he was not having any of it and refused to skate! After nap crankies are a real thing for us and we will try this again on a morning when he is happier!

But guess who was happy watching all the skaters go around?!

6 Months!

Half a year has passed since Leah's birth! Time flies... I think even quicker with the 2nd! Well... it seems the first 2 months are long and they are newborns and then bam. 6 months.

This perfect little girl as been an angel from the start. Happiest baby. Always content, not demanding and I'm always in awe of what I can accomplish in a day being home with her. While she naps I can workout, blog, do laundry and she naps well on the go too and I did so much Christmas shopping with her.

Her sleep has been all over the place from sleeping too much where we had to wake her up to feed her (because she wasn't gaining weight well around 3 months) to getting up every 2 hours... that's the recent trend. Last night was better with only 2 wake ups at 2 and 5 but I think the teething has been the culprit! Her first tooth has poked through and I see the other one coming through too! I was getting up with her on my own until the past 2 weeks and sharing the wake ups makes it much better for my sleep!

And since I introduced formula at 3.5 months, Leah has gained 5 lbs in 2.5 months! She is now 17 lbs of cute chubs. She still nurses well, loves her bottles (and has usually 10-16 oz of formula a day) and hates solids! We sneak feed her every time... she won't open her mouth. And that's for pablum with formula and banana/apple sauce mixed it and sweet potatoes and avocado with banana. Those are all the foods we've tried so far!

Her new trick is siting up all on her own. She also has been rolling over for a couple months and doesn't hate being on her tummy! She is no longer swaddled and sleep sack no longer holds her arms!

She loves the jolly jumper and her exersaucer and will spend half an hour in each no problem.

I thought I'd document her milestones since in the next 6 months huge things are going to happen like cruising,crawling and who knows maybe walking! And we really hope sleeping through the night ha!

Christmas 2018

Christmas festivities are officially closed. We had an awesome Christmasy December and now I'm ready to take down the decorations and call it January.

This picture was taken at Aleksy's Gran and Aunt's Christmas on Dec 15th. This was the first of family celebrations and we had our traditional Christmas pizza. Leah's first time at Grans!

Logan my little cookie making helper. He is kind of at a funny age for helping with things like this because he wants to help and knows what he wants to do but then when he finds it hard and not turning out how he wanted, he doesn't want to do it anymore! So there were only a few decorated by him.

Also, these are cookies for Santa now and when he sees us eating them he tells us this.

And matching family PJs from last year came back in full swing (good thing we bought big for Logan) and they still had some in stock for Leah to get her own pair!

I chose this picture because it reflects accurately my experience of parenthood... both grabbing my hair from both sides and one eating it. At least there's some still left after all this post partum hair loss!

Friends family Christmas PJ brunch! This is our pack of 11 children and 8 adults all in our jammies for some breakfast. I love parties where there's mimosas and breakfast. I did breakfast enchildas and they were delicious!

Elf yourself... good stuff every year.

Since the kids had so many presents to open Christmas eve in the evening and Christmas day, we let them have some of their other presents Christmas eve. Logan was pumped for a new hot wheels garage and car track for all his little cars! And I was excited to start the resent opening early...

Christmas eve we went to Aleksy's Babcia's for a visit in the afternoon before heading to my Moms for Christmas eve supper.

Christmas goodies.. I managed to find some time during the day because Leah's such a good baby to make some ginger snaps, pb chocolate squares, shortbread squares and cranberry cake. I also had made the christmas choc chip cookies and pb balls for a cookie exchange and of course Logan helped with the Christmas cookies. And those chocolate gluten free cookies are actually delicious!

I fully tricked Logan into this picture. This is as good as it gets.. the dog and Rachel are ready.

Logan (and me) were not tip top on Christmas eve so he wasn't eating much supper but he was LOVING the crackers. He even got a bottle opener. What a lucky guy.

After supper Rachel comes upstairs asking when we're going to open presents... but only because Logan was asking of course. These guys couldnt wait!

Dessert just before opening presents... or during because the kids can't wait forever!

Logan opened his Thomas the train with some books and with that he was gone playing with his train for the rest of the evening... we had to call him over to open other presents because he was perfectly satisfied with his one gift!

He was spoiled with some Thomas jammies, a fancy gap shirt always from his Auntie and remote control Chase!

Logan did so well this year and wanted to play with his new toys when he got home and was even able to help get the egg nog and cookies for Santa. Leah thought 9pm was an ungodly hour. Thomas are tears in her eyes poor tired babe.

Christmas morning! Logan was up about 6:45am and we managed to stay upstairs until about 7:15am because 1) this was the day he really wasn't feeling the hottest and he woke up monsterly cranky and 2) I think due to #1 he managed to forget that Santa brings presents and they were downstairs.

But once we got downstairs he got some instant happiness with all this... he even held his sister for a picture!

Stockings first. I am very pleased with Santa's snacks in Leah's stocking. Great idea Santa.

Logan basically got to open double the presents this year... although Leah called dibs once they were out.

Logan helping open Leah's new pink swing for the back yard.

This little Logan snowglobe made us laugh!! We have the best daycare lady! Keeping this one forever!

Logan and Leah excited about Leah's new walker toy. Leah moved on from her Christmas jammies after a poosplosion or peesplosion (I dont remember because far many have occurred since then).

Christmas morning madness was divided into 2 time slots. We didn't get through everything and by 9:30 Leah was ready for a nap so she went down and we took a little break. I swear it didn't seem like that many presents until they started opening!

Logan's presents included his new James train (that he asked Santa for), new train accessories and box, a motorized ATV, hungry hungry hippos, a pup pad, cash register and money to name a few...

Leah got a new walker, swing for the backyard playground, soft toy food and a baby to name a few.

Christmas breakfast... Tommy and Vina's delicious bread with eggs, peameal bacon, hashbrowns and some kielbassa. Oh and mimosas obviously.




















His very own wallet with money and cash register! After opening presents, breakfast and getting out of our PJ's we went on a brief drive so the kids could have a nap before Christmas at Aleksy's parents! That was the method of napping for most of the holidays since Logan was sick and needed a nap but refuses to nap at home!

At Christmas at Aleksy's parents, there's no beating around the bush. You get there and immediately open presents... it's great! Logan especially thought so. He was a great helper once again with his sisters presents.

Leah cleaned up in the baby toy department this Christmas. She is never bored of her toys now!

Also.. how cute is my baby.

Apparently I get really excited over my kids presents. Logan got a box full of new tracks (that Richard makes!) for his trains, which was pretty awesome for everyone. I am quite the avid train track builder these days.

We had an awesome huge (as always) Christmas turkey supper to follow and on Christmas evening were home a but earlier for the kiddos to get to bed... especially since a cold and fever had hit Logan especially by the end of the day.