10 on Tuesday

1. I've discovered that The Cheesecake Factory is a real restaurant and not just one that Penny works at. Go check out their cheesecake menu. Oh. My. God. Peppermint Bark Cheesecake, anyone?

2. Mya's teacher sent home the class list today and I can't wait to make valentines with her this year!

3. I also found this TOMS outlet site that sells TOMS at almost half price! Yes please!

4. Adam finished tutoring on Sunday night so that means that for the next month, our evenings are ours again. What to do, oh what to do with all of these evenings? Go to bed early! Man, I'm getting old.

5. We went for an impromptu visit to the library on the weekend. It was nice to go there again since it had been awhile since our last visit. They had new books too!

6. Wanna see some double over double bunk beds? http://www.wayfair.com/Discovery-World-Furniture-Weston-Full-over-Full-Bunk-Bed-with-Built-In-Ladder-2115-DWF1129.html Hilarious, right?

7. We bought goat's milk. Knowing that I'd be going back to work soon and that meant Henry having to give up the bedtime boobs, we thought it might be easier on Adam if we could give Henry some kind of milk/boob alternative. Cause, y'know...Adam doesn't have boobs. So I did my research and found out that a lot of kids who have allergies/sensitivities to cow's milk can still drink goat's milk because it's lower in lactose and the proteins in it are much easier to digest. Thus, we bought goat's milk. The baby hasn't tried it yet. But I've baked with it and I've had some on cereal and it hasn't seemed to bother him that way, so it's looking good for us!

8. Now just to figure out what to do with all of my free time in the evenings while Adam gets into his new routine before I actually abandon him to go to work....I know! Frenchy's!

9. I should really be spending this naptime being more productive...dishes, here I come!

10. And now to leave you with some of the cute that I get to be around every day. I didn't want you to start being jealous of me so I thought I'd share.

Wordless Wednesday

10 on Tuesday

1. Mya has started saying she doesn't want to go to preschool anymore. Trying to figure out why is not a fun game. It all depends who you ask, but Tuesday and Thursday mornings remain the same: "I don't want to go to preschool today. I just want to stay home with you and snuggle."

2. I think I'm ready for warmer weather. Yes, yes I am.

3. We've decided we need to try and change our spending habits and cut corners where we can. We're considering getting rid of cable and just having internet and phone with Bell. A lot of our shows can be downloaded and with our WD box, we can watch them right on the tv so it wouldn't really be a lot different.

4. I've realized I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people. I never call anyone and it seems that everyone else calls me. Thank goodness for that or else I'd never have anyone to talk to!

5. I boiled peas today for Henry's lunch and I think I'm going to mix them up with some curry powder and coconut milk. Good? Gross? I guess we'll see!

6. We've been really good lately about cutting back our trips to the city! Yay us!

7. I can't seem to warm up today! The fire is going all nice and toasty but my hands and feet are still cold.

8. Me and Mya built this yesterday during Henry's naptime. We were impressed with ourselves.

9. I have to go wake up the baby so we can go pick up Mya. I hate doing that!

10. I've heard that the mother in law is going to come help us put in a vegetable garden! Yay! We've been wanting to do that since we moved in here but just haven't had the time/don't know what we're doing. Fresh vegetables here we come!

Happiness Is...

A couple years ago I had a post started called "Happiness Is" and it was a list I started of things that make me happy. I've mentally added to it and thought I should put it on my "happiness is" list:

-feeling your socks hug your feet for the first time once the weather is cold enough for them
-baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie
-having your baby sleep alllll night
-seeing your children in matching Christmas jammies
-making your baby laugh until there are tears in his eyes
-a great back massage
-buying homemade mustard pickles from a local craft fair
-growing your own vegetable garden
-laughing until you pee your pants
-the first fire of the season

More to come!

Wordless Wednesday

10 on Tuesday

1. So this thing with the government losing data on 583,000 student loan borrowers is kind of aggravating to say the least. I'm afraid to call the 800# they provided to see if I'm one who's affected. In all seriousness, I totally feel like the government should have to suck it up and waive the payments for those affected. I mean, for the rest of my life am I going to have to be on the look out to see if my identity is stolen because they lost my social insurance number, birth date, name, contact information, etc.? It's completely irresponsible on their part and I think they should have to reimburse those affected in some way.

2. It's official: my return to work date is February 25th. Exactly one year after I left. Me and Adam talked about it a lot and if money wasn't a concern, we would both rather I stay home and not have an evening job. It would just make our lives a lot easier and less stressful but unfortunately, that's just not our hand. It's alright though. We're still getting what we want in a lot of other ways such as not having to put our children in daycare, me being able to work at a job I like with people I like, and not having to work shift work. So really, it could be worse.

3. So we emailed the family and everyone's on board with chipping in for a swing set for the kids for their birthdays! Yay! I think I see a lot of perks for this whole having a birthday one day apart thing.

4. We've started getting paranoid about retirement. We know we aren't going to retire any time soon but we're starting to realize that we can't retire and live off of our dreams. We're going to be 29+1 this year after all and I think it's standard and expected for you to freak out about your lack of RRSP's when you turn 29+1.

5. I was out the other day and saw a display for some tax package and it was then that I remembered that I have to do my taxes again this year. Death and taxes....

6. I'm writing this as Adam is tutoring his third kid tonight. He normally only tutors 2 kids on Monday nights but they have an exam tomorrow and he can't help but want to help. So, I lay here trying to stay awake so that I might have some Adam time before we both crash. It's been a long day.

7. Instead of buying a box of minnie mouse or cinderella valentines from Walmart this year, I think we're going to make our own. And by that I mean I'm going to do my best to avoid having Mya see them while we're out and try to convince her that making them will be way more fun.

8. Someone on my facebook posted this and I've seen it before but I love it even more now that I have two children. If you click on it, it makes it bigger for reading.

9. Me and Adam have been watching old seasons of Modern Family and holy hell that show is funny. Sometimes I have to pause it cause I'm laughing so hard and I don't want to miss any of it.

10. I need a new hair do and don't know what to have done. Any ideas?

These Booties Were Made for Walking

I've been trying lately to get a good video of Henry walking while he holds onto the walker car thing but I swear that every time I get the camera out, he acts like he has no idea what he's doing. When the camera is put away he navigates that thing through doorways and around furniture like nobody's business which of course prompts me to get the camera. This was the best one out of five videos I took the other day (please ignore the long johns...we had just come in from shoveling the driveway and it was cold out!)

Ok, so apparently blogger is still not letting me upload videos. So annoying. I have posted it on facebook instead. Please accept these adorable photos in its place.

Resolutions

Last year I made a New Year's resolution to try and stop comparing myself to others. I don't know if I succeeded or not but me and Adam were talking about it last night and we decided that we had in fact gotten better at it. We might not have stopped doing it completely but it's a start, no? It isn't healthy to constantly feel like the grass is greener on the other side. We (and probably most people) need to start being happy with what we have. It's like they say, "people spend money they don't have to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like." Enough said.

This year I'm going to try not caring what other people think so much. This one is hard especially when you're not just considering people you don't see often (ie. other preschool moms) but factoring in people you see and talk to all the time (ie. family and friends). Because yes, when family and friends lend their thoughts and opinions on things, it's hard not to feel judged sometimes even though it is all well intended. SO, I'm going to try and keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter what other people think and that as long as me and my family are happy then that's all that matters!

Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday

10 on Whatever Day I Like

1. We've had to lower the mattress in Henry's crib because not only is he pulling himself up on everything but he's also walking while holding onto things. When I went to get him from his nap yesterday and saw him leaning over the railing I knew we couldn't put it off any longer. The mattress was lowered last night.

2. We still have our Christmas tree up but Mya's tree came down this morning. It was time. She took it well.

3. Adam's first day back to work was today and frig it was hard getting up this morning. I was enjoying our Christmas break routines which included waking up at 6am only because the kids did, not because there was going to be someone picking you up for work soon.

4. Henry is officially in his new to him car seat. It kind of sucks because now when he falls asleep in the car he usually wakes up when we carry him in but at the same time it beats carrying around a car seat with a 20lb kid in it.

5. I've started thinking about the March birthdays and how this is all going to go down. I think I still have some more thinking to do but we did come up with a joint birthday gift we're hoping we can get the rest of the family on board with: a swing set! yay!

6. I've started making a list of things that Mya's had a fear of in the past year in case it comes up at her speech assessment and it's longer than I realized:

-dust bunnies
-feathers
-the production credits at the end of the cat in the hat cartoon (yes, seriously)
-knit knots from the imagination movers show
-humpty dumpty
-the old lady who swallowed the sea book

I don't understand them but maybe I'll learn something about it at her assessment.

7. I've started a general "to do list" and it includes everything that I think about on a semi daily basis. Things I need to look up online/research, things I need to buy, things I need to remember to do. It turned out to be a rather long list. It scared me.

8.We finally started hanging some pictures on the wall so now our house doesn't look like we just moved in.

9. I've decided that when I can eat dairy again my first meal is going to be pizza! I can't wait!

10. We're taking the kids to the pool this afternoon. Mya's been asking since before Christmas break and we never made it there while Adam was off school so we thought today would be fun.

11. I went back and read the beginning of this list and realized that I had started it a few days ago and our tree is actually down now. It came down yesterday. Our house feels so empty now.

2012 - 2013

Well, a new year has started and I look forward to what 2013 will bring. We had a good year in 2012 with Henry being born and us celebrating our first year in our new home. Now that Christmas is over I look toward planning a joint birthday party in March and returning to work (one of them I'm looking forward to, the other I am not. Can you guess which is which?)

Allow me to share some pictures of our Christmas and then it'll be time to officially move onto the new year.