Say Hello To My Furry Friends

I was missing my Moose friends from Cape Breton in the worst way (I am still missing my human friends from there too). But I have been seeing so many Moose out here in Manitoba lately and am loving it! You could say animal watching is my most favorite hobby. Anyhow, I am so far ahead of Jon in our animal spotting competition it's ridiculous. Just yesterday alone I spotted 7 moose & 6 deer. Jon is 2 deer, 2 baby beavers, & 2 moose. He would say he won because it's pretty rare to spot baby beavers but I beg to differ. These two little beavers hang out just down the road from us and I have been down to visit them everyday. I still haven't seen their momma yet.

Check out these cuties I have "made friends with" these past couple of days.

I Love My Body

I have been following my beautiful blog friend Heather for awhile now. We got pregnant around the same time, had sweet little baby girls around the same time and are now enjoying life & motherhood together in blog land. Check out her blog at Moonshine Junkyard and check out her beautiful babe Lucy. Does she not look like Willow? I think they look & from what I read, act so similar. I love it.

Anyhow I was catching up on her latest posts when I read one that I could totally relate too. In fact I had a post saved in my own drafts that I hadn't finished which was on this exact same topic... Body Image.

It all stemmed from when I was in the bathroom last week standing in front of the mirror bare nudie. I was standing sideways and sucking in. Just wishing those 8 extra lbs would melt away already. As I was poking and prodding at my bod with disgust my little Willow was staring up at me watching this. I was absolutely horrified! I quickly put on my towel, scooped her up and started singing and dancing. My goal in life is to be a great role model to my children and in that instant I felt like I failed. Luckily she is so small and will never remember such a thing but I will always have that moment in the back of my mind. I want my Willow to have a positive body image. I want her to grow up to be a confident, strong, and positive woman no matter what shape or size she is. I want her to learn this from me. Us woman are far to hard on ourselves. It's disgusting actually. Womens bodies are absolutely gorgeous and we come in all shapes and sizes. 

I do love my body and self and feel the exact same way as Heather. Read her post HERE

PS How much do we love Doves social mission?! So nice to see a company empowering girls & woman. Heck yeah I am going to buy more of their soap!

Sleep Deprived Fun!!

Willow & I had an exhausting week last week. Jon went away for training in Ottawa so Willow & I headed out to my hometown to spend the week with my parents. I probably would have gone crazy out here, actually I know I would have.

Willow does NOT sleep when we stay at other peoples homes. She is like us all and likes her own bed best. She also loves her bed time routine so when I throw it off she is not a happy camper. I think teething has also been a culprit as we have had some pretty rough nights at home. We had a couple of nights where we were up from 12:00am until 5:00am. Not fun. It is always so helpful to have J around to help out in times like these so it made it a little bit harder to handle. My mom and dad helped out in the mornings a lot which I am so thankful for. I can say she is always in a happy mood the next day. If she was miserable all day long, I would be miserable. She makes my days happy at least :).

We got lots of visiting in, even though it was exhausting we had a lot of fun. We are happy to be home and in our own beds though. And last night she slept!! Saaweeett!!

Willow finally got to meet Trav!!

Erin and our babes

Elliott, Willow & Carter

Elliott & Willow are 1 week apart and Willow and Carter are 6 weeks apart.

Uh Oh Willow is flirting already

Cousins!

Mom is grooming her into a little princess

Dad trying to teach her the "right" way to crawl

Uncle Gorgeous feeding Willow

Willow got to meet Traci & Jess!

Happy Birthday Lorraine!

We had a fun time with the family celebrating my mother in-laws Birthday last week. Willow had her first glow bowl experience/ she got tossed around while we all took our turns. She loved it though, she eats up all of that attention. She doesn't play shy unless she is tired or hungry. We then had a big old turkey feast which was delish.

J & his momma

Auntie Sarah & Wills

So tuckered out from all of the excitement!!

Dear Willow, (9 Months)

Dear Willow,

Nine months? You are growing up way to fast! We spent a lot of time at home this month. We are totally getting shack whacky here in Manitoba. The weather is getting seriously depressing. We are going to have so much fun when this snow clears and we can hang at the beach everyday!

At nine months...

- You have two bottom teeth

- You are still wearing the same size of clothes as last month. 6-12 month and some 12 months.

- Size 9 month onesies

- Size 3 diapers

- You make the most ridiculous faces now. I think we promote them by laughing at you so you do them all of the time. You are such a ham

- You LOVE food. You like absolutely everything we give you. Peas, pears, and cheerios seem to be your favourite though. You grunt when we don't feed you fast enough

-  When are you going to be a good sleeper at night?! We had a rough week this past week. I think it may be from another tooth trying to pop through. You SCREAM at night and we can't do much to calm you.

- You crawl backwards and roll around to get around

- You have such a big personality. You're feisty, hilarious, goofy, aggressive, and happy

-  You take little steps with your walker and are very proud when you do so

- You always are slamming your heels into the ground. You have done this for quite sometime. I always think you are going to really hurt yourself but it doesn't even phase you

- You are a busy body, you always want to be on the move

- You love books

- When you are tired or mad your "unibrow" turns bright red. You also pull at your ear when your tired or hungry.

- You love Lily so much. You always stare at her and squeal

You love touch and feel books the best!

Typical crazy Willow face

Those legs!

We love to the moon & back Willow Rae xoxox

The Gift Of An Ordinary Day

My little family of mine is my everything. It's amazing how Willow has brought Jon and I closer then ever before. Our hearts are so full of love! Even in our off days like yesterday I never ever take Willow for granted. I know all of my banter about my little ball of squishyness (Willow) may be nauseating to some but I just can't help myself.

 Check this video out. I may have cried my face off. By may I mean I am a snotty, puffy faced mess that is using every ounce of willpower I have to not wake up my babe from my her nap.

 Waaah! And then I think of all of the times I was rude to my parents when they were just trying to show me they loved & cared for me and I want to cry even more!!

Cuteness

I am pretty lucky that Willow is such a happy and extremely easy going little babe. So when she has one off day I am totally thrown off. When she is cranky I get cranky. No fun. I tried EVERYTHING to get us out of our little funk. Dance party, jolly jumper, food, toys, singing, cuddles, nursery rhymes... and nothing would work. I dumped all of her stuffies out and surrounded her and she was instantly content. And it made for a seriously adorable photo.

Now how could I possibly have a bad day?!

After we dropped our fuss pot ways we went to take the doggies outside when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. Yep, you guessed it, deer. We seriously see about 50 a day but these ones were especially close. I sneaked outside and snapped some pretty cute shots.

Cute right? It gets better

Look at those lips!!! lol

My heart!!!

The highlights of a small town housewife/momma are extremely exciting I know!!! ;p

Frosty Spring

All of your outdoor Spring photo's have me just a tad jealous. This is the Winter that just does not want to end! I am not much for complaining so I am keeping a positive attitude by enjoying the beauty that this lingering frost does provide. We still have those long days and the beautiful light, a chilly Spring can be beautiful too...

My neighbours out for a stroll

The lake is still very snow covered

So happy the first shop in town is open for the season!

This little gal was creeping in my window

Easter Weekend(s)

We got to hang out with Jon's parents for a couple of days before they took off to Kauai! They took care of Willow for one night so we could hit up a movie for date night.

Willow playing with daddy & Grandpa

I love how she is reaching for her Uncle Bert <3

 The following weekend was jam packed. We had an Easter dinner at Jon's sisters place the first night. They cooked a huge delicious feast for us.

Willow was chatting with her Grandma & Grandpa who are in Hawaii

Then we had a hot double date night. Sorry Bob & Lorraine, I couldn't get a good picture of the new man as he wouldn't let me. I did snap a couple of creeper shots ;)

We finished off the weekend with a huge Easter feast at my parents. These pictures are mostly of Willow being spoiled and snuggled.

What is all in here?

Daddy and Willow

Mama & Willow

In her Sunday best

Mama & Willow

Great Grandma & Willow

Great h'uncle Bob & Willow

Cousin Miya & Willow. Willow looks hilarious in this photo lol

Cousin/Auntie Rhianna & Willow

Uncle Gorgeous & Willow

Uncle Bert & Auntie/Cousin Rhianna

This picture is blurry but here is the whole fam damily minus Tay & G&G

 I hope you all had a fabulous Easter weekend spent with the ones you love xoxo