Vacation pictures!!

These will be uploaded shortly!

WOW - I'm back!!!!!!

After a full day of hanging out with mom, Leah is exhausted and just crashed on the couch. She loves the orange pillows and tells me that she HAS to have one to rest on the couch. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting.

My little man full of smiles. I really don't think that I've seen a baby that smiles more than this guy. First thing in the morning when I walk into his room, he greets me with a big smile, and that smile continues for most of the day. Zach's going to be a little heartbreaker in the future I'm sure of it.

I took this picture not too long ago when she was being silly. I asked her if she was cute and she replied "of course mommy". What a little munchkin!

some fun stuff

I absolutely LOVE my Dyson and my new Bissel. The two works so well together. The Bissel is about a week old and has been used 4 times, I did half of the front room the first day, followed by the other half the next day. Leah enjoyed using it too and was excited to see the dirty water, so we used it again on our main livingroom carpet. The water sure was yucky to say the least. The Dyson is almost a year old and it is by far the best vacuum that I have ever had. It will pick up the smallest particles on the carpet and works like a charm, it really doesn't lose it sucking action like the commercial says.

Leah was super excited by the lovely foam sunglasses that grandma gave her for Valentine's Day, me not so much. They don't really stay on, yet she insists on keeping them on. If they are not on her, she wants to share them with her brother and they definitely DON'T stay on him. All I can say is I'm sure Elton John would be impressed with this little thing.

Valentine's Day and Family Day

Since yesterday was Valentine's Day and today is Family Day, I'm combining my posts together.

Yesterday was a crazy busy day. Woke up and decided to make some pink, heart shaped pancakes (not fully realizing that Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday), but Leah loved them. After breakfast was finished and the kitchen was somewhat cleaned up, we decided to take the kids to Westmount Mall (Leah loves parking in the underground parking garage). Neb took them to get my Valentine's Day gift and card, then I met up with them and swapped. I then took the kids and got his gift. Neb's gift was pretty practical, 2 new ties, 2 new pairs of pants, and tickets to yesterday's Knights game.

Since Neb, Vince and my dad were in a hospitality suite at the Knights game, it included all the finger foods they wanted so I knew that he wasn't going to be hungry when he got home. I went to the grocery store and purchased the PC General Taos Chicken (which I find quite yummy) and had it for my dinner.

We just cuddled up on the couch and watched the Olympics til it was time to take Zachary up to bed.

Family Day - today for some reason I was getting really dizzy with almost every move. Late this morning I headed back up to bed with the thought of just relaxing, but I ended up falling asleep. Leah came up and woke me just after noon. We had a pretty relaxing afternoon once the kids had their naps, I still wasn't feeling 100%.

Tonight we decided to splurge and headed to the Mongolian Grill for dinner ~ it was fantastic. They treat Leah so good there and our meal was super yummy. Had a delicious molten lava cake for dessert, Leah had the whipped cream.

Came home, and flipped between Olympics and the Bachelor, great night so far (am I'm starting to feel better)

Tomorrow I want to take a trip to Ikea, but I might settle for JYSK

Our Little Girl

Today was a busy day at our house. Neb slept in until almost 11am! Leah helped me made pancakes for breakfast, then we played for quite a long time. It was 10:30 when I realized just what time it was. After I had a "power nap" we decided that since the Olympics have started we would go and get a family picture taken. Neb had on his red Olympic hockey jersey, I had on my white Olympic hockey jersey, Leah was wearing her red Olympic hockey t-shirt, and poor Zach didn't have any Olympic wear. Off to Masonville it was to purchase something for Zachary. We ended up getting him a Olympic tracksuit and a onesie. Once our shopping was finished, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some things, and to get a family photo. The had a spot right away for us and the girl doing the pics was pretty good. We were sitting on the floor with a black backdrop and another with a white backdrop. Wal-Mart has a decent deal on right now (I think until Tuesday) it was $4.99 for 30 pictures (pre-set sheets) but since I also have their smile card (not sure what it is actually called), we received another sheet at no additional charge and of a different pose. There was a $5.00 "sitting fee", but all in all, our total for these pictures was just over $11. Not too bad for quickie family pictures. I will scan them in when we get them and share with everyone, they should be in at the end of the month.

Today's challenge was "love", I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of Leah before she went to bed, but I did get one of my husband not wanting his picture taken. This became a challenge in itself. I think I must have snapped about 10 shots before even one was somewhat recognizable. He is my rock, and I love him with everything I have.

Tigger, my cat, is a different kind of love. We have a love/hate relationship. He is not too fond of the kids and has decided that his way of getting attention is to use our front room as a litter box. It could also have something to do with the two stray neighbourhood cats sitting on our front porch that has been pissing him off, not sure which yet.

Today was a day with just my little man, I put him in his swing because he hadn't been in it in quite awhile and this is what he did almost right away. Arms on the sides, totally relaxed, and with his soother in his mouth (yes the duck is attached to the soother).


Things have been crazy busy in the past week. I am going to try to keep up with a daily blog, but life seems to be getting busier every day for some reason. Yesterday I took both kids to Wal-Mart because I had a strong desire to purchase a carpet cleaner. I ended up getting a Bissel lightweight cleaner and I LOVE it. So far I have cleaned the carpet in the main floor playroom and the dining room and I think the carpets look a lot better - the water that I dumped was pretty nasty!


Wednesday was a very, very exciting day. Our best friends in Ottawa had their second baby. A healthy baby boy for Jennifer and Shawn, big sister Rachel looks to be pretty awestruck based on the pictures. Congrats on baby Owen. I can't wait to go up for a visit, even if it is just on a weekend. Why oh why do they have to live so far away??? Oh, right, jobs! Jobs suck!!!

Monday and Tuesday of this week were trying to say the least. Leah is sick, snotty, drippy nose and dry hacking cough. I went to the pharmacy to get something for her, but who knew that once again the drug companies changed the ages for anything cough and cold related. So after talking with the pharmacist, he determined that Leah could take nothing because she was too young. The new label states that anything with a decongestant is only safe for those 6 and up. It was interesting to look at the dosing however. I have an old bottle, from when it was safe from 2-11 (for children's Tylenol with Decongestant) and the amount of active medicinal ingredient is the same as it is in the new bottle which is safe for 6-11 year olds. The only difference is the dosing. The old bottle says that the dose for the older age group is 10ml and the younger age is 5ml. On the new bottle it only has the dosing for 6-11 year olds at 10ml. I wonder why they did away with any kind of decongestant for toddlers. I know that my snotty nosed toddler needs something and there is no way she is letting me near her with a saline solution - I tried!

As for my eyes, I go back at the end of March for a follow up with the surgeon to see if all the holes are good. If there is still damage there is a chance that they are going to have to do the more invasive surgery and then I would be out of commission for a lot longer. I have very little tenderness around the eye sockets now and there was no bruising (thank goodness, or I would have looked like I had two black eyes)

Tomorrow, Leah and I are going to do some baking, so I'll be sure to post some pictures of my little helper.

I'm back. No pictures today however. On Wednesday I went to the optometrist and it was found that I had holes in my retina. First thing Thursday morning I was at the Ivey Eye Clinic and was told that I would be having laser surgery to fix the holes. I had both eyes done on Thursday around noon. I am feeling fine, the area around my eyes is very sore tonight and starting to bruise.

I will get back to taking pictures shortly.

not going to blog for a bit

I just wanted to let my "followers" know that I am taking a bit of a break from blogging for a bit. I have some personal things that I'm dealing with and will get back to it when I can.

Thank for understanding.

Lisa

Having more fun with Leah

Today was a crazy day around here and it didn't stop until bed time. Leah, Zach and I went to the mall today to look for new glasses for myself. Leah was such a good girl that we went to Buck or Two (I think that is what it is called) and she was able to get a balloon. Who knew that $0.75 would be such a hit (and keep her being good ~ if she was not good, the balloon went into the sky!). We got home and Leah was exhausted, but didn't want to sleep, or even have "quiet time". She just wanted to go to Costco. When Neb came home, we did go to Costco and while there, we received a phone call from some friends seeing if they could come over tonight. Sure, not a problem. However, we wouldn't have time to cook dinner before they came, so fast food it was.

Leah was wound up tighter than a top after dinner and she wanted me to take some pictures of her in her new p.j.'s. However, she also wanted to do "silly poses", and these are the results. My silly bean, and I love her.

Bedtime was fairly simply, she's been in bed for 2.5 hours and there has been no noise from her room!

Life IS good.

Around the House

Today was a bit chilly, so I turned on the fire and just had to take a picture of it. I wish it was a wood burning fire as those are wonderful, but the control of a gas fireplace is wonderful.

The next picture is of the fabric that is on our bench in the playroom, it is really nice and I'm hoping that it will find a permanent home somewhere in the house soon.

I am going to try to start playing the piano more often, I think the kids would enjoy it. I started playing the piano when I was around 8 years old I think, but never really took it as seriously as I should have. I would love to be able to "tickle the ivory's" like some of my friends can.

Our trip to Tillsonburg

Today we went to Tillsonburg to see Grandma and Grandpa. Leah was being silly and wanted her picture taken with mommy. Grandma was taking the pictures and asked us to do a "crazy" face, and this was the end product.

Off to "Girls Night Out" tonight, so I'm sure there could be some "interesting" pictures tomorrow.

So today when Leah was at daycare and Zachary was sleeping I started playing around with the camera. I wanted to take a picture of something with bright colours and the only thing that I really could find was one of Zach's toys. This particular toy he really likes right now because he can bite down on it hard. The poor little guy's teeth are really bothering him, I can't wait until tooth #2 decides to surface.

By baby boy

Tonight I came downstairs after heating up some baby food for Zachary and I found my two boys chillin' on the floor. I thought that it was adorable that Zach was still without the lower half of his pajamas on so I quickly snapped a shot.

Zach hasn't been feeling the greatest for almost 3 weeks now and I is getting very tiring. He is not eating much food and is not taking nearly enough formula as he should be. I know that it is also teething causing this, but there is more to it. He has been to emergency a few weeks ago because he was getting dehydrated and they told me at the time that he had a "rotovirus" and gave me things to do to get him re-hydrated. It did help for awhile and he is no longer throwing up, but hopefully tomorrow's doctor visit will give us some more answers on how to get him taking more food. A plus, I did make squash for him a couple days ago (and froze it in ice cube trays) and he seems to like it a lot. Tomorrow I'm going to cook up the sweet potato and puree it along with some peaches and mangos.

Well, this was a belated blog, but the picture was indeed from Wednesday. Tonight Leah had her "Little Sneakers" class at Byron Somerset school. Today we were supposed to do T-Ball, but I don't think that the teenage instructors have any sense of time. The class is 30 minutes long, we spend 5 minutes taking attendance, then another 10 minutes doing a running game and stretching. The next 5 mintues was spent handing out balls and having our children learn how to throw a ball underhand to their parents. Then 5 minutes having the kids trying to toss their ball into a hula-hoop that was on the floor (many of these 3 year olds were trying to roll the ball because they didn't understand the concept of "toss"). This leaves only 5 minutes to "play" but at this point they realize the time and call us all back to the middle for a final stretch and group cheer.

The first picture is of the gym and how they did intend to actually play T-Ball (the T-Ball stand IS there!)

The next is me getting all artsy for you and I took an angled picture of the coloured mats that all elementary schools have piled up in a corner of their gym.

Next week is basketball, hopefully they will have figured out their "planning" and time management.

Just For Fun

So today Leah wanted a HUGE snack, or at least that's what she told me. I went to the fridge and thought, I wonder what I can give her so she won't say "I'm hungry". On her pink plate (any other colour and she would have a fit) is some honey ham from Remark (one of my new favourite places to go), summer sausage, cucumbers, cheese, half a banana (I had the other half in my cereal!) and a package of mini-chef carrots (the only package of "baby" carrots that Superstore had on the weekend!) and some of her favourite juice, the V8 stuff that tastes like fruit juice but also has veggies in it.

Then there is my little boy. He was sick for over a week and I still don't think he is quite himself yet. To get him to smile takes a lot of work, and usually Leah is the only one that can succeed at it. This picture of Zachary was taken by Leah, she's quite a little photographer when given the chance. Zach loves to spend some of his time in his swing, usually with his dukie soother in his mouth and his bear blankie by his face.

Finally our diva in the making. She flopped down on the floor and said "mommy, I'm posing, take my picture". Seriously, she's 3, how does she know about posing?? I was surprised that she "posed" long enough for me to take this picture, usually her "posing" is very short, so she can run to the camera to look at the picture!

Guilty Pleasures

Well today I figured that I would post pictures of some of my guilty pleasures. The first picture is the items that we got from Hollywood Tan today. Neb and I signed up for a 300 minute package in order to get some kind of base tan before going away in March. With the special that they have currently, we received a bottle of lotion (which smells wonderful). We are going to try to go on alternate days, or close to it, in order not to burn when we go south.

Next would be my guilty pleasure of chocolate, I don't really like just plain old chocolate, but when I bake with it to share with others, I'm really happy. I think I will try to bake something out of this new cookbook tomorrow with Leah. First we will have to tackle the grocery store for the ingredients.

I think I have decided IF I bake tomorrow, Leah and I will attempt to make the "Warm Molten Centered Chocolate Cupcakes", they look super yummy and fairly easy to make.

Dinner Possible!!

I decided to go all fancy for our Sunday night dinner tonight. Leah helped me out in the kitchen, she loves helping and I find that if she is a "cook" with me, she is more likely to eat the meal that we are having. So on the "menu" tonight was chicken breast stuffed with cranberry and brie (thank you Remark, it was delicious, expensive, but delicious), stuffing (Leah's choice), rice (Neb's choice) and peas (again, Leah's choice).

When looking at the two chicken breasts cooking, mine was the one on the right (smaller one) it was stuffed with cranberry and brie (as mentioned earlier) and on the left is Neb's, his was stuffed with a ridiculous amount of asparagus and mozzarella cheese.

Finally, my spinach salad (I didn't have to share with anyone, as I had it after Leah went to bed, and Neb doesn't like salad of any sort). It is baby spinach with mandarin oranges topped with a last-minute homemade vinagrette dressing, which was awesome! The dressing consisted of peach hot pepper jelly (from Niagara-on-the-Lake), rice vinegar, sea salt, sugar, a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil, it was wonderful.

My children are going to be my inspriation for this blog. I hope that I can bring some of the joy they give me on a daily basis into your life. I will try to give you a sneek peek at what goes on in our household, and some of the things that our crazy kids do. I will try to include pictures of other fun things that I like to enjoy, you'll just have to wait to see what I show.