As the girls are getting older, I find that I have less and less time to Blog. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that my posting has become more and more sporadic and quite frankly, i’m not sure whether I will continue to blog or not.
Thanks to all of you for being a part of my blog and thus my life. It has been great getting to know all of you. I hope the New Year finds you healthy and happy.
Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of year. Having kids has just made it even more fun, special, exciting and memorable! I always envy Heather, my American friend because her tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving and I get to hear about her preparations for the Holidays way before i’ve even started mine, but this year is totally different! I started my gift shopping at the end of November, and as I write this, Dec 6, I can honestly say that I am totally done. I am so thrilled to be able to sit back and enjoy the Holidays without all the stress and hustle and bustle of shopping. I have even started to wrap some of the girls! So, ever since Heather put up her tree, I had been itching to get ours up so while Bee had a few days off, we decided that it was perfect timing. He wanted to wait until Dec 1 but I got him to relent and it went up Nov 30th! The girls had so much fun decorating and they turn on the lights as soon as they are awake in the morning. I have to admit that I enjoy seeing the tree all lit up when I sit down at the end of the day, when the kids are in bed and I get to just relax. It’s nice to be able to enjoy it and not have it feel like a chore. When does your tree go up?
The girls making sure the tree was up right. It passed inspection!
Anna decorating the tree
Lea’s turn to decorate
The finished tree! (minus the topper, needed to get a new one. There’s one on there now tho!)
Anna turning on the lights.
It is no secret that my girls do not always get along. They are at two very different and difficult ages. But, today I got to see an act of sisterly love that I have yet to see, and it showed me a whole other side of Lea.
Anna is in the ever popular, two-year old, get naked phase. She has become quite adept at taking off her pants and diaper. Earlier today she had managed to get her pants off. I think she got cold because she decided to try and put them back on herself. After several attempts she got very frustrated. She kept putting both legs in the same pant hole and she had given up. Lea walked over, sat in front of her and actually helped her get her pants on. It worked until the pants were at Anna’s knees and she decided that she no longer wanted help. She twisted and thrashed and Lea got upset and called to me that “Anna wasn’t helping!” It was a really sweet moment while it lasted!
Life with my girls is never boring!
I know it has been a while since my last post and that picture entries don’t really count as posts. I’m sorry about the sparseness of my updates. Things have gotten really busy, but also really good. With Lea’s preschool schedule ruling three days out of the week we have fallen into a nice little routine.
Basically the days that Lea’s at preschool I spend some time with Anna and also catching up on my cleaning. Lea is often very tired after school and is ready for lunch and then nap. On the days that she doesn’t have school we are trying to get out at least once that day. Whether it be to run errands or simply play at the park or in our own backyard. They are usually then ready for naps and Bee and I take the time to do whatever it is we want to do. Usually read for me and computer time for him. After naps we try to play games (Memory is Leas favorite right now, with Go Fish a close second!) then it’s dinner, hang out time and then bed.
Now I’d love to be able to say that we stick to that everyday but that’s just not the case. I am doing my best and that’s what really matters. It has helped with some of the behavior issues we’ve been experiencing (talking back, tantrums, foot stomping etc.) and that makes every day better.
I know that this is seriously late but I wanted to include some pictures from Halloween. The girls did great and it was the first year that Lea was really interested. She had fun making ghosts and other decorations that we hung around the house. Heather (who got the idea from Mel) had the great idea make a creepy crawly dinner which for included a snake and a ghost in the graveyard cake. The girls had fun with both dishes and we will definitely make them again!
As far as actual Halloween night, I have no pictures to share (how sad as that!). Bee and I spent so much time chasing the girls, helping them up the steps, and opening their bags for them that we didn’t snap a single shot! Here are the girls in their costumes and these photos may or may not be from October 31, the actual, real Halloween 
It’s never been a huge secret that I love my sleep. I am a person who needs a solid 10 hours if not more to function properly I have almost always been this way. Before I had kids I always wondered how I would adapt to that bone jarring sleep deprived-ness that I kept reading about. Luckily for me I had two babies who liked very much to eat and then… you guessed it! To sleep. My girls were sleeping through the night by 8 weeks and prior to that, my husband would do the 12 o’clock feeding and I’d get up at 4 or 5 am, sometimes for the day.
I thought that by the time my kids are the age that they are now, that our sleep problems were over. Apparently I was sadly mistaken.
Hubby is on the night shift now which means he leaves at 6:30pm and is home at around 7:30am. After he leaves for work, I bathe the girls, then we hang out a bit before going into Lea’s room to read stories. After their two books, I take Anna into her room and sing her songs and put her to bed. Then with Lea it’s potty, bed and more songs and she’s ready to sleep. Getting them to bed isn’t the hard part.
For the last two nights, Lea has been waking repeatedly and crying for Daddy. The first time usually happens about 30 mins after I’ve gone to bed, when I’m just finally settling into sleep. Last night she was up at 11:30pm, 1:00am and 2:30am. After calming her down and talking to her the last time, in the dead of night I crawled back into bed and hoped to sleep until morning. I drifted off, and started dreaming ( I only know this because I was dreaming when I woke up) but Anna decided that she no longer could sleep and started calling for me. By this time it’s 3:30am.
Our pattern with Anna is to leave her in her crib (I think her night waking is due to teething)and to lie down on the single bed in her room. I have spent quite a few nights there these last few weeks and it’s not ideal but it beats sleeping on the floor or bringing her into my bed (both my girls are very very squirmy and I really wish that I could bring them to bed with me and we can all happily go to sleep but it just doesn’t happen).
I spent the rest of the night there with her before Lea woke up for the day and came looking for me. Of course, this, the worst of nights in a long time (and the second in a row) happens on the night of time change. So, her usual waking time of 7:30am is now 6:30am. UGH.
So, Hubby is going to sleep most of the day while I try to deal with the kids, totally sleep deprived and totally off schedule because of the time change. Oh, and I get to put them to bed too, an hour later than normal!
Someone please send coffee and hope for an early naptime!
As usual (and yes I do realize that this has been my only blog content for more than a couple of weeks now!) I am participating in Candid Carries Foto Fiesta!
I made a special Halloween dinner the night before last and this was our dessert! Ghosts in the Graveyard! I will have another post soon with more pics of this fun family time! My husband took this shot and only when I downloaded and started looking through them that I noticed my daughter in the corner, anxiously licking her lips! I thought it was too cute and had to share!
Happy Halloween everyone!
It’s Friday which means it’s time for Candid Carries Foto Fiesta!
The other day I was feeling a little under the weather and allowed the kids to have free reign and play as they wanted. They decided that the best way to get the toys at the bottom of the toybox was to climb right in!
Here you can see the aftermath of my morning of leisure (yeah right!)
I decided that for today’s Foto Fiesta, I would honour our 7 year marriage anniversary. We were married Oct 13, 2001, which was this past Monday. The foto below was my favorite one of us, and it was also the one I sent out in all my thank you cards!
Some of my other faves:
My fellow blogger and Twittermom Katie from Get Real Mom tagged me to share 7 random/weird facts about myself as well as tag 7 of my friends to do the same. It’s really hard coming up with 7 things but I will definitely give it a try!
1. I have to have all cupboard doors closed at night. For whatever reason, I can’t sleep if the sliding doors to my closet are not perfectly closed. I also do this in the kids’ rooms. Nothing like passing on your neuroses to your kids!
2. I love trying new recipes, but never seem to make the same one twice. I think the novelty of a new recipe is more fun than an old standby. Unfortunately it also means that we have lots of interesting dinners when things don’t work out quite as planned.
3. I’m a morning person, but I need to have quiet mornings. I hate to wake up to chaos, noise and craziness. Luckily my children know that I need quiet and are usually quiet content to eat their breakfast and watch their shows for a bit in the morning.
4. I love to read and love to find new books to read just as much! On my Goodreads list I have 504 books, 185 that I have read and 317 to-read. I like to think that I will someday get through all the books on my list but at the rate that I keep adding them, it’s not likely to happen.
5. I once received a certificate for Volunteering so much at my local public library. I was about 10 at the time and it was a full ceremony (I was not the only one to receive an award) and the mayor presented me with the award. I felt so proud of myself and grown up! To this day I still love the library.
6. I have to reply to emails no matter what. I hate being the one to end a conversation by not replying even if it means a simple thank you or other such ending. Something short and to the point. That way I know the other person knows that I didn’t ignore them. Silly eh!
7. I really really hate bad, swerving, too slow, unpredictable drivers. I have noticed that people that talk on their cell phones while driving generally drive slower than the speed limit. Drives me nuts! I get frustrated when I have to follow or watch said bad drivers. I keep thinking that if they do something irrational it might still be my fault and that scares me!
I tag these people to also share 7 things about themselves:
It’s Friday which means Candid Carries Fiesta! This week I chose a recent picture for a change!
Here in Canada, we get 4 really distinct seasons. Of all of them, I would have to say that Fall is my absolute favorite. I love the cool crisp air, the changing leaves, the bright sun that’s not too hot, home cooking, apple crips, pies and just apples. It’s hard now to love the Fall season and all that it entails.
Ever since I was a little girl we have taken walks to this Nature Park. It’s a tradition that I am continuing with my family and we just recently took our walk there. I have tons of pictures that I took that I really really love and that I am going to have printed, and I couldn’t resist sharing a few with all of you!
Posting tweet...
