Nana & Papa are coming home!

My parents are back safely on Canadian soil and should be in the truck right now on the way to the ferry in Horseshoe Bay. They went on a 7-day Caribbean cruise which I hope was everything they were hoping it was going to be. Because of the travel aspect they've been gone for 10 nights and I'm sure they are as anxious to get home as I am for them to get home. The 5 hour trip home from Vancouver is always the worst part of any trip PR people make.

Whenever my parents go away we stay at their house and look after my fur brother Diesel as well as their house. This home feels very comfortable to us and we spend a lot of time here. Now when Diesel sees their suitcases, I'm sure he knows we are coming and that they will arrive home again because the last few trips they've taken his worry fact (aka pacing around sulking) has gotten much better. The best part of the whole thing is to see how happy that freaking dog gets when they do get home! I won't see it today cause I'll be at work, but I'm so looking forward to 5 pm when I get to rush here to there house and throw my arms around my Mama....everything will truly be right in my world again. I love that lady so damn much and miss our daily chats when she's away. 10 days is a long time for me to not talk to her :o)

I am very lucky to have the parents that I have...and I try to never take that for granted because I know so many people who don't.

And because no post is really complete without at least a photo or two...here is my wonderful, getting older fur brother Diesel. He looks so old in this photo, although he just turned 7 while they were away.

James often calls Diesel his best friend...can you tell he loves him, just a little bit? :o)

Happy Birthday to Me :o)

I have always been one that loved her birthday. I have never really dreaded getting older and welcomed big milestone birthdays with happiness and joy. Well 19 I welcomed with a ton of booze and a 2 day hangover, but 30 I welcomed with happiness and joy, along with a great husband, child and all around life.

Today I turned 32 and although I am starting to feel older, which I totally attribute to being pregnant and very tired all the time, I can still say I am enjoying where I am in life. I am happy with who I am as a person, a mother and a wife, I do know there are still things about me that I would like to see changes with. I can still be a brat sometimes when I don't get my own way and I am still bossy and like to nag at my husband, but on the flip side to that I know I am more thoughtful of others needs and wants now and always put my child's happiness above my own. I'm glad I waited to have kids until I knew I was ready to at least do that. Giving up sleep was not something I think I was really ready for, but most days it's something I deal with with a smile on my face, a few good cups of tea and lots of hugs and kisses.

Today was a great day spent with my favorite people. Highlights were:
First I got to sleep in while Jim took James out of the house completely as I can never REALLY sleep once he's up for the day.
Jim and James came home with a handmade card from James and a wonderful gift certificate for a massage. 
Talked on the phone to both of my brothers, step-mom in Kamloops, bestie in Edmonton, and bio dad in Mexico.
Had my favorite McDonalds breakfast shared at the counter instead of the table because that's where little man wanted to eat.
Enjoyed some wonderful quiet me time while the boys went grocery shopping. 
Had a great tea and brownie visit with my friend here in town (in my comfiest hang out at home clothes).
Had some quiet time playing crib with my hubby...and James when he woke up from nap in mid-game.
Went to my sisters house for homemade pita pizza dinner and yummy cupcakes made by hubby.
Played a super fun game of Toopy & Binoo bingo with James and the fabulous Bumma.
Left James at Auntie Ra's for a sleepover so I can sleep in tomorrow morning!
Moved all our stuff home and made the beds so we can go home tomorrow night and climb into clean sheets (my favorite part of every Sunday night!)
Came back to Mom & Dad's and waited for my Mama to call saying they had landed in Vancouver!

Now I sit here and write this blog, feeling extremely grateful for a quiet, relaxing and happy day in my world. Not a day filled with activities and on the go visiting, but just the perfect amount of me time, friend and family time and feeling very loved. Thank you everyone who has been reading the blog and hope you enjoy the posts as much as I enjoy writing them. I already look back to the ones from early in the month and am grateful for having my family memories recorded somewhere I know I will go back and look at in the years to come.

James: "Mommy, I take a picture of you pweeese"

Now it's Mommy's turn to take the picture!

 Yummy breakfast burritos from McDonalds...and yes I have given my love of McDonalds burritos to my child and he loves them too...along with other bad favourite foods like
Cheez Whiz and Kraft Dinner!

Attempting to get my yearly birthday photo with my little man!

  

He looks so little in this picture for some reason, reminds me of what he looked like a year ago!

hahahahaha...the many faces of James

Dressed and ready to head for supper! Cute family photos for Mommy's Birthday.

 

Opening his Christmas present from Michaela

Such a beautiful niece I have! Love you Michaela

The wonderfully patient Bumma playing the Toopy & Binoo game with James and me 

 

Now it's Daddy's turn to play!

6 months ago you couldn't have paid this kid to eat a cupcake...and now he loves them!

  Blurry picture but still kinda cute!

Overall it was a fantastic birthday and I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. This next year of my life is going to be a great one, with the birth of our new little one (whom has moved a bunch today to let me know him or her were thinking of me!) and becoming a most-likely-complete family of four!

3/52 - A Portrait A Week

I went into James's room here at my parents and this is what I saw....

complete and utter perfection!

I can't even explain how much I love him and I know that most mothers (and lots of fathers too) would agree when I say that I truly cannot imagine my life without this little creature in it. He has completely changed who I am and how I view the world.

In just 4 months we will have another little one to love and I can't imagine how it's possible to love another like I love him...but it must happen because I know my Mama loves me just as much (if not more...hahahaha) than she does my two older brothers!    :o)

Hey James...guess what?

This is a pretty standard conversation between James and me these days:

Me: Hey James, guess what?
James: what Mommy?
Me: I love you.
James: Hey Mommy, guess what?
Me: what?
James: CHICKENBUTT.....hahahahahahaha

And yes he does actually laugh every single time...and then tells me "Mommy, laugh with me!" if I don't immediately start laughing when he does.

The kid is definitely his father's son. Where do you think he learned chickenbutt in the first place?

Franklin love his mudder....

James loves Franklin books. For about the last year they are his absolute favorite. Ones like Franklin Goes to School and Franklin Rides His Bike have been read probably at least 100 times each. For Christmas, Andra bought James 3 new Franklin books that I luckily found at Chapters in Nanaimo, as our local Cole's only sells the new Franklin books that unfortunately look just like the TV show! Why can't kids books stick to being books, why do they all have to look like TV?

Anyways, one of the three books is called Franklin Says I Love You. I really honestly didn't know when I bought the book that it was all about how Franklin wants to get his mother something special for her birthday, but also will admit that I do absolutely love that it focuses on how much he loves his mother.

So, we've been reading this book almost daily since Christmas and as much as I tell James that it's called Franklin Says I Love You he insists "no Mommy, it's called Franklin love his mudder." It melts my heart that everyday he asks to read this book and I assure you that I will never say no to this book as long as he wants to keep reading it.

And in true James form I ask him at the end of the book "do you love your mother?" and he says "uuhhh nope." So I ask "what about your mommy, do you love your mommy," hoping that he just doesn't realize that they are the same person as I am always Mommy or Mama....yet I still always get "uuuhhh nope."

One day he will realize how much he does love his mudder...but in the meantime I really don't need anything more than for him to tell me "I Love You" just as Franklin tells his Mother on her birthday.

Family Support

Plain and simply put, we are an incredibly lucky family to have so many wonderful people in our lives that help us with James and are helping us raise him to be the incredible little person that he is.

From my parents, to my sister and her hubby, to my aunt and uncle, to our amazing sitter, to our great friends who are always willing to help out when needed, we are very blessed. I know a lot of people don't have near the amount of support that we have and some would prefer it that way, but not us, we love being near our family and we spend a lot of time with them. We have weekly Saturday or Sunday morning coffee/tea visits with my parents and of course our favorite Sunday dinners with parents, sis and hubby and aunt and uncle. We try to spend a fair amount of time with our friends but with all having small kids sometimes schedules don't make that easy!

This past weekend my sister Andra was a huge help to us. Our parents are away on a cruise and they are usually the go-to people we ask to watch James if we want a date night. Mostly because he is used to staying here over night, but also because I know they don't often have plans whereas others usually do! I got tickets to the local Banff Film Festival and really wanted to go so asked Andra if she could watch James while we went. She happily forwent her regular Saturday night plans to come here and put him to bed and hang out with them. Then the following night on Sunday he spent his first sleepover at Auntie Ra and Uncle Bin's house since he was 5 weeks old...and he LOVED it! And then to top off the amazing help she was she watched him all day on Monday while we were at work as that's my mom's usual day with James. Such a great support to us and he really loves his Auntie and loves spending time with her. He was well behaved and slept like a champ while he was there too. Because Ang is watching him next Monday too he is having another sleepover this coming Sunday too! Such a lucky little boy...and his tired Mama who gets to sleep in on Monday morning! :o)

So, to all those people who are reading this who have helped us in the past, even if just by giving advice or a supportive hug when needed, or loving James like he's part of your family, THANK YOU! I really truly believe that a child needs and deserves all the love he can get and I know our kid is very loved everywhere he goes. You should see the hugs and kisses he gets at my sister's salon when he stops in there! He is a very lucky little boy for sure.

This was just before we left on Saturday night. As soon as Auntie Ra sat down he wanted her iPhone to play Angry Birds....so she happily said yes and the technology "snuggling" began!

2/52 - A Portrait a Week

The two loves of my life. My two boys.

  

Just one moment before this picture was taken James said to Jim
"nice to meet you Daddy"

52 in 2013 - A Portrait a Week

A friend of mine Sarah found this great 52 in 2013 - A Portrait A Week. This blog challenge of sorts has you taking and posting at least one photo per week and then going to the blog listed below and linking your blog post to it for others to see. I love the idea of making sure to take at least one good photo of someone or something that I love and hoping that maybe just one week out of the 52 (well 51 remaining as I'm starting a week late) one of my submissions will be chosen as one of her favorite top 5!

Check it out here!
http://cheandfidel.blogspot.com/


So here's my 1/52. Not that it will be uploaded on her site, but just so I feel like I actually did the whole 52 week challenge.

Determination at its finest! Little man playing hockey in the driveway with Daddy!

How do you organize your family's memories?

Ever since I had James I have become obsessed almost with keeping track of the things that we do as a family. When I was a kid I don't remember much of the stuff that we did and I know times were different back then in the fact that photos weren't taken nearly as much as they are now. I know we have family photos of me when I was a kid but it was never something that I really remember my mom doing.

I want to be the mom that my kids dread because I always have the camera in their faces...but I also always want them to appreciate that years down the road when they have thousands of photos of their childhoods to look back and see all the things we did.

As well as creating a yearly family calendar on Shutterfly (link to 2012 is below, not sure if it will work), I also have a family calendar in a binder (just printed weekly calendar pages) that I write down everything that we do, and all of those kid milestones that I know I don't want to forget. This includes all the crazy stuff that James has been saying these days!

The calendar has changed over the past two years but I absolutely love the idea of it. Each month now has 15 of my favorite photos of things that we did and below it is the date that the activity took place. This includes such things as play dates with friends, trips to our favorite park, Willingdon, or just playing in the backyard at Nana and Papa's.

The written family calendar is then transcribed over to the photo calendar once I get it back from Shutterfly. That way when all is said and done I have a complete calendar with photos and listings of everything we've done. Even if my kids never care about these calendars, I want to be proud that at the end of the raising kid years I will have a yearly record to show our family's memories. I'm proud of the efforts I am making to ensure these memories are kept and recorded for many generations to come to see them.

Front of the 2012 Calendar

Example page from 2012 Calendar

2011 Calendar - Photos

2011 Calendar - Written page

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendar/viewPreview.sfly?fid=5da1d53402879e321edfde4629415e0afeab3dd66ece74a3f9ac648439d98e4a

I said he was the best...and I really meant it!

Hands down....I have the best hubby in the whole wide world.

Jimmy surprised me with flowers today and my whole day feels so much happier and better, not that it was awful just feeling ho hum about the pictures and stuff.

The kid is napping, hubby is making spaghetti sauce for family dinner tomorrow night, I am playing on my new computer, the sun is shining and beautiful, the dog is happy chewing on a treat enjoying the fresh air and sun on the stoop, we are heading to the beach trail with friends this afternoon, then date night tonight with hubby while my wonderful sister watches the kid.

All is great in my world right now! What a wonderful Saturday :o)