Fun outting with one of my besties :)

Tara was in town with Boston visiting her family. We took the opportunity to take the kiddo's to West Ed and take advantage of free rides at Galaxy Land! Avery and I (and Avery also goes with my girlfriend Rachel who watches her when I work) go often, but this was little Boston's first time on the rides!

I haven't seen Boston for a few months now, and he has grown up so much! He so adorable, and such a curious little guy. He would get a little nervous at times, but he loves taking in all the sounds and sites! Thanks for hanging out with us Tara and Boston :)

My fuzzy wuzzy Valentines :)

Valentines Day can be so much fun, since v-day was on a Monday this year we spent the day as a family (which is the way it should be hey?!)

Me and Avery had some fun during the day drawing on some hearts and decorating the house, and having a Valentines themed lunch.

The hearts that we made, very extravagant... I know!

Avery thought the whole thing was just so much fun! She loved sprinkling the hearts on the table that we punched out and helping me set the table. We are all big fans of the meal breakfast... so that was our Valentines dinner!

I'm reading this book right now, its a very very light non-serous book called "Cherry cheesecake murder." It is about a girl in a small town that owns a cookies shop and there is a movie crew that invaded this town to shoot a movie. She cooks them food, and its really just a simple fun read! Anyways, she gives recipes throughout the book! She had this recipe for "Fruit Pocket French Toast" that made my mouth water just reading!

So that is what I made, delicious! So fatty, and they take a little bit of time.... but so good, and filling!

Avery opening up some little Valentines goodies :) Jordan and I were sitting there too, but of course I forgot to take pictures of my actual Valentine... love you hunny!

And this weekend Jordan and I were able to go out to dinner and a movie and celebrate together :)

Happy Valentines Day!

A week in Paradise!

This trip was... amazing! The week can be summarized by saying we just enjoyed out resort, ate good food and relaxed! We had great weather, even my white body came back with a TAN... not a burn! I feel very fortunate that my parents treated me and Paige to this week, I missed Jordan like crazy but with his work and school schedule it was just not possible for him to get away at this time. Plus with my parents on this trip, it would have been hard to find someone to watch Avery all week.

My parents were able to take 2 of us, Kamry and Jason just got back from Mexico, Taren had a couple big gymnastics meets coming up that she couldn't get coaching subs for, so that left me and Paige! We had a lot of fun together, and with all my parents work friends that were there too! They were all so much fun!

View from me and Paige's balcony, My Dad said we had the money view and if I wasn't pregnant (ours was on floor 1, and theirs was on floor 3) they would have made us switch, haha, another perk of being pregnant!
Our room!

They had hammocks all over

Swim up Bar, we actually never went to that bar cause it was the cold pool, we preferred the warmer pool... :)

Our beach, the sand was like flour and crystal blue water!

The Spa! It was so relaxing and smelt so good whenever you would walk by!

First night at dinner

Chess time, taught Paige chess, yea... were pro!

Paige and Me and Mary from Texas, her husband manages the Fort Mac office.

Me, Tam and Mary (Tam's husband manages the Eastern offices) going to Playa Del Karmen for some shopping!

My pedicure that I treated myself to at the Spa, sooo relaxing!

My cute parents, they had this singer one night sing all romantic songs. She was amazing!!! It was like Celine Dion singing live, she hit every note and sang such great songs. Made me want to dance with Jordan... instead me and Paige watched others dance, haha! The Entertainment was always pretty good every night.

Me and Paige outside the Mexican restaurant one night

At the Mexican restaurant, me and Paige with Carole and Fran and Tam and Kevin

Me and Paige at the French restaurant the last night

Aloha! Our last night in Mexico... *tear* but also so excited to get home to my 2 favourite people!

Highlights of the week:

- Amazing room and service, 24 hr room service

- great food and drinks: 8 restaurants at night and awesome buffet and lunch for breakfast

- Good night time entertainment

- awesome resort for couples: made me miss Jordan... I know... poor me!!!

- Beautiful beach and ocean

- pools after pools, you could always find a good spot by the pool or ocean

- awesome weather, we really lucked out. The day we left it clouded over and started raining... talk about good timing!

- Getting home to my 2 sweeties, Jordan was so amazing taking care of Avery all week. He couldn't get work off except one day, so my Grandma and good friend Rachel stepped in I missed those 2 so much. They picked me up at the airport, it was awesome! Avery ran up to me and hugged me forever, and then she looked at me smiling and put her hands on my cheeks! It was hilarious! Good to be home!

Hope for the best... and not dwell on the past!

I had a hard time titling this post, it is such an exciting post and news that I've wanted to share for a long time. But I also feel quite vulnerable exposing this news, considering my past. But I have learned that I can't control everything, and maybe I will experience heart break again... I don't know! But I need to be optimistic and hope for the best! Oh and a warning, LONG POST! Lots of this is for family that I have not told all these details too!

Enough beating around the bush, yes... I'm pregnant! I know my last post was maybe a little hint, I feel a little bit more confident announcing things now. I'm due Aug. 8, I am 14.5 weeks pregnant right now. My 2 prior miscarriages in 2009 were at 6 weeks and 15.5 weeks (but I did not find out until 18 weeks with the later.) So you can understand my reservations with holding back the news. At the same time, I majorly popped last week, so despite my best intentions of hiding things... its not quite possible anymore!

I had a doctors appointment this morning and heard the heart beat, it was healthy and what it should be for this stage in the game. He/she gave me a little scare, he/she was being a little stinker and hiding a little. It was a horrible few minutes, brought back some bad memories. My Dr was looking low because that is usually where the baby sits at this moment, but I guess my little spud has already popped up, so once my doctor went up... we found it! Jordan reminded me later that with Avery I always carried high too. That is one reassurance with this pregnancy, it is so much like my pregnancy with Avery. The other 2 I was not as sick, and especially with the late one I just wasn't growing the way I did with Avery. Last week set my mind at ease when I realized at 14 weeks I was significantly bigger than I was with the late miscarriage.

It has been hard keeping such wonderful news to ourselves. That being said we did share the news with immediate family at Christmas. We found out we were expecting at the end of November, I even flat out lied to my Mom when she was hinting at if I got my period or not. Backing up, after the late miscarriage that happened at the end of 2009 I did have to have a D&C, so we took a little break from trying for the first part of 2010 to let my body heal and emotional to be ready to try again. We started trying around May 2010, so month after month of trying was getting exhausting. I know there are lots of you who have gone through the same thing and for even longer so my heart goes out to you. So when I finally took that test an it was positive, I was ecstatic!!! I did a little happy dance for a long time, Jordan just laughed at me. We were both over the moon excited!

Mostly why I lied to my Mom was because I had this idea for a long time of how to tell our families! A week before Christmas (because we were going to BC for Christmas with Jordan's family for Christmas) we had a little get together at my parents with our whole immediate family.

So I made a shirt for Avery that says "This little sweetie is going to be a big sister!!!" I kept a zip up sweater on Avery while we ate dinner, watching her closely hoping she didn't take the hoodie off, or someone else didn't. Taren and Dave were late for dinner, so I had to wait until they got there. Avery finished dinner and finally everyone was sitting down finishing up in the Dining Room. I took Avery in the kitchen and started taking her hoodie off, and then Taren walks in the kitchen to go play with Avery. I looked at Taren and was like "Can you just go back in the Dining Room for a second!?" haha, she looked at me strange and said "ooookay!" So then I told Avery to walk in the room and show Nana her shirt. She walked in and first Jason saw the shirt and read it and then looked up at me surprised. And then Taren saw it and started screaming excitedly, and then my Mom turned around and read the shirt and she jumped up and hugged me and started crying, and then I started crying! And then I look across the table and my Dad figures out whats going on and hes crying (such a softy!) It was amazing, so exciting sharing that news with my family! Paige then saw the shirt and came and jumped up and down with me and Avery. I think Avery thought it was pretty neat that everyone loved her shirt so much! haha, it was a great reaction from everyone!

We told Jordan's family at Christmas, they were so excited too... not as great reaction because it took everyone a while to read the shirt since it got a little ruined in the dryer! Oops! haha.

So many positives about this baby. I always wanted my kids close in age, probably cause that's the way me and my sisters are. Of course I learned that I cant control everything, Avery and this baby will be exactly 3 years apart! If this baby is a girl, great for re-using clothes being that we have tons and they would be the same seasons! I will be so happy with a boy or girl. I love that Avery is such a big girl! I will have 6 months free of diapers before this baby... yay! She completely understands that there is a baby in my tummy, she loved hearing the heart beat at the doctors this morning. She keeps telling us she wants a boy baby, haha! I would ask if a girl baby would be okay... nope! But she has come around to understand a girl baby would be fine too! She is such big help, so great with babies too! Whenever she hears a baby cry at church and looks at me all concerned and says "baby sad Mom!" I love that I've had a rest from the baby thing, and I will be ready to take on the sleepless nights, diaper changes and feedings again! I love that I've had the chance to go back to work, gain some more experience, and get maternity leave again!

Anyways, we are so excited and just hoping for the best! I don't know if I will really believe it until I'm actually in labor! But as you see below it is a hard thing to hide now, I'm HUGE! haha, but I'm grateful for being huge and throwing up, and feeling tired from diclitin!!! Those are all blessings to me!

My little potty girl

Hi ya'll! I couldn't let a whole month slide by without posting something!

I have some big things to post soon, but time is not right yet... leaving you in suspense! Well don't think too deep, Jordan has just pulled out his handy man skills yet again and made over our front hall closet!!! He always blows my expectations out of the water all the time. I had some requests for our front hall, and then... BAM! He pulls out a custom craftsmanship closet with cubbies and shoes racks and hooks for our jackets, amazed! The doors just went up, we just received the handles in the mail (they were hard to find, but Jordan found some online that are perfect!) So once those go on, pictures to come. And then finally a full out before and afters of the house!

We may get to new doors this year, but definitely most of the big projects are done. Our ugly bathroom will remain... our ugly bathroom! I may give it a little thrifty makeover (new accessories etc.) But that’s it! So may as well post the before and afters!

But I have a little bragging to do about another important person in my life... my little Avery! So I think he has been ready to potty train for a couple months now. She sees her little buddy Zach go to the bathroom lots, so I think that as helped. But I have not been ready! haha, does that make sense? We had Christmas right around the corner and I did not want a newly potty trained kid in the car for a 9 hour drive! Definitely diapers are better for that!

But one of my news resolutions was to dive into potty training! I was all geared up for accidents and a big project... but it wasn't! Avery has been such a star! Of course treats of been a motivator, but there are no more treats and she’s still a champ! She’s so cute to see how proud she is of herself and how happy she gets when I get excited!

#2 has been a bit of a different story, not with having accidents; she only wants to go in the potty. But with being stubborn and holding it! But I think she’s coming around and seeing that its not such a bad thing get it out and "push" a little! haha, the first time she went #2 I felt like a birthing coach encouraging her to push!

She now only wears pull ups for night time, and she is starting to wake up in the morning with them mostly dry! Nap times she even wears panties! And Mom’s out there, how cute are the little panties out there!

Things are good, busy but good. I may get a little spontaneous vacation right away. A deal I could not pass up, details and pictures to follow :)

So funny, sometimes she asks for books when shes on the potty! This kid cracks me up!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Since I'm enjoying my week off with my family and having too much fun to blog I thought I would say a short message! We had a wonderful Christmas and I loved how much Avery enjoyed and understood everything!

Have a wonderful New Year and all the best in 2011!

Our House at Christmas

Last Christmas I did not get to enjoy Christmas in our new home. Thankfully we escaped to my parents lots which is always beautifully decorated, but last Christmas was not the greatest in our home. We were doing major renovations because Jordan has a chunk of time off, we had our kitchen in our living room all December! It was such a mess, there was no room for a tree or anything really! I had also just gone through my second (and late) miscarriage of the year, so it was not a very cherry time :(

But this Christmas has already been wonderful. Aside from being crazy busy with Primary and work, our home feel so cozy! I can just feel the warmth of Christmas when I come home, and the three of us have been watching lots of Christmas shows and just spending time together in our home!

Our tree. I had never bought Christmas decorations since we got married in December and our center pieces were Christmas balls. So I just used those. But last year on boxing day I went to Greenland garden center and re-did my tree! Such great sales, and I've been excited all year to finally decorate my tree and put it all together!

My plate wall for the holiday season. I added a couple Christmas plates! And added my "Merry Christmas" blocks with pine cones. Man I love these edges - thank you honey for you amazing craftsmanship!

Christmas center piece. Buckets from Michael's, like $1.50 each. Mine pine cones from Dollarama, and I got the plate from Pier 1 last boxing day, the plate is really cute, I was trying to think of a way to show it more, but oh well. I still think this works.

My dear friend Tara made this for me last Christmas. It found a home at our front entrance on the ledge, Avery loves looking at the characters. I also used it for Family Home Evening this past Monday for Avery to learn the real Christmas story. Thanks Tara!

Up close look at the advent calendar. We had one similar to this growing up as kids and I loved it! My mom was making one to send Blake on his mission so I joined her an made one for our family. We got the trace for the stockings on Martha Stewart's website. They were very easy, and then I found this cute ribbon at Michael's. The numbers are stickers I found at Michael's too, they obviously weren't sticky enough to just stick on the felt, so I glue gunned them on. The first thing Avery does in the morning is runs to the stocking to get her treat!

The tree with some presents under it. I have no had time to get much Christmas shopping done yet, but me and Avery did have a fun shopping date with Auntie Taren this week and got a good jump start on Christmas shopping.