Playdates

Most of Willows friends live a couple of hours away so it's so nice to catch up with them whenever we go into town! It's fun to see the different little personalities and how much they have grown. It's also nice to hang out with other mom's and talk mom stuff :)

Willow & Grace

Grace, Willow & Carter

We are super lucky that another one of Willows friends lives only a half hour away. And yep, it's ridiculous, we have only really had one play date. This summer will surely change that. Chels and I will be strolling those babes to the beach daily :)

Kennedy & Willow

 I have a billion and ten pictures of Willow and her bff Finley from a weekend they came out waaaaaay back in February that I still need to post. How cute are these two?!

Finley & Willow

March 9th - Jaye & Brian

My sweet little friend Jaye had been planning her wedding for the past 4 or 5 years I would say. She had a folder on her computer and of course a board on pinterest dedicated to her big day. She had all of these fabulous ideas way before she got engaged. I always took her for a gal that would have a HUGE wedding at a place like The Fort Garry Hotel. And since she had been planning this event for such a long time I thought she would need at least two years to get every detail ironed out and perfected. Well she surprised us all when she originally planned a backyard wedding for this summer. A low key affair with well over 100 guests. She then switched it to having it at a beautiful restaurant called The Gates On Roblin.

A few months ago she decided all of this stress of planning a big wedding was ridiculous. She bumped up her wedding date to March. 9th and decided on a guest list of 30. How smart is she?  She ended up getting married in the most quaint little church in the country where her husband's parents were married. So sweet! The dinner and reception were at The Gates and the ambiance in the room was mesmerizing. Seriously the pictures could never do it justice. The food was absolutely delish and for a late night snack they brought out three flavours of Kernels popcorn. It was such an beautiful evening surrounded by the people that are closest to them. Besides my own wedding of course this was my most favourite wedding. Jaye included so many adorable little touches and I just loved the intimacy of it all. So low key, so gorgeous and she pulled it all off in such a short time. So impressive. 

The night ended off with a big crew of us being driven by limo to the beautiful Fort Garry Hotel. We had a couple of night pops once we arrived ( her Grandma was even there, what a party animal!). And then in the morning we all had the renowned brunch, i never disappoints. I want to do it all again!!!

So I am totally kicking myself because me being my forgetful self I am, forgot something I NEVER go without on a very special weekend... MY CAMERA! Ugh so annoying. I borrowed my moms camera but she doesn't know where her cord is for me to download the pictures. Luckily Jaye's photographer Monica Baldwin captured some amazing shots for me to share.

Jaye and Brian live in his Grandparents old home. They did all of their photo's around the property. I shed a little tear when I looked over at Brian's Grandmother sitting in the corner of her old home. It would be such a beautiful sight watching your grandson "start his life" in your old home.

The gorgeous couple.

I love this picture so much

Like I said the picture just doesn't do this room justice!

And a couple of my iPhone photo's...

Jaye labelled everyone's name in gold on a wine glass and had her Thank You cards waiting for you at your seat. 

Jaye is a O.R Nurse so very fittingly the game to get the Bride & Groom to kiss was Operation with a twist. If you couldn't successfully take out a body part you had to kiss that body part on your partner. If you did take out the body part Jaye and Brian would kiss. The most hilarious one was Jaye's brother in law. He had to kiss his wife's (Jaye's sis) foot. So fun

Jaye's friend Chelsea and her husband Eric made such a beautiful slide show for the bride & groom

When we got to the hotel the clerk gave us a bag filled with goodies that Jaye had made up for her guests. It included a water bottle which was customized, it thanked us for being a part of their day and the ingredients were too cute. Chocolates, Aspirin and some nuts. So thoughtful and sweet!

Thanks again to Jaye & Brian for including us in such an important, memorable and beautiful event!

& CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Husband/Daddy

Let me fill you in on just how good of a dad/husband Jon is, yes I am totally bragging. He pops out of  bed at the first peep Willow makes in the morning, scoops her up and brings her to bed so I can feed her. Once I am finished he takes her out of bed so I can sleep in until whichever hour of the morning I please. I always have a coffee and a happy baby waiting for me in the living room once I drag my behind out of bed. For the rest of the day my duty is to play, cuddle, & feed Willow. Jon has taken full responsibility of cleaning (his specialty is vacuuming with his beloved Dyson), playing in his garage, cooking and cuddling Willow. At night he would sing Willow songs to try and get her to go back to sleep and gently caress her perfectly smooth face. Oh and he gives me a massage every single night to put me to sleep. Yep, we are the most spoiled girls I know. This routine went on for 7.5months. We are so lucky that his job provides him with such a long parental leave! He went back to work at the beginning of March and boy oh boy was that a rude awakening for all of us.

What?! Mom's have to wake up in the morning no matter how late they stayed up or tired they are as soon as the baby wakes? What?! You have to wait for the perfect window to have a shower? What?! Getting a baby ready to go out anywhere takes nearly an hour? What?! The house gets messy when you play with your baby all day long? What?! The dogs need to be taken outside on a leash? What?! I need to stoke the fire all day long? What?! You don't get to talk to an adult all day? What?! How do you work the oven :p? You get my drift. Most momma's have to do this on their own right from the start. Some even  have a second, third, fourth, fifth child to take care of. And single moms, I salute you. I can't imagine not having a break whenever you want one. I have a whole new respect for motherhood!!

This was a very hard adjustment for Jon too. He feels like he is missing out on so much being at work all day. He comes home so tired and only gets 2 hours with Willow. He makes up for the loss of play time in those two hours though. He feeds her, we go for a walk, he gives her a bath and then reads her a story before beddy bye.  I love watching him swoon over our baby.

Jon is the most hands on daddy I have ever met. I am so lucky to call him my husband and the father of our beautiful baby girl!!

Dear Willow (8 Months)

Dear Willow,

You actually turned eight months last week but I have been such a slacker on the blog scene :s. The older you get the more your personality starts to shine. You are so hilarious and very feisty! This past month we have had visitors out every weekend so you have been snuggled & spoiled by many.

At eight months...

- We can't plop you on the ground and trust that you will be in the exact same spot if we leave the room for a second. You are a rolling machine!

- You haven't learned how to crawl just yet but you get up on all fours and do the rocking motion (we call it the happy humper)

- You went to Grandpa & Grandma's house once a week this month.

- You spent one whole week at Glamma & Pop Pop's house with me

- Your favourite words are mamamama, daddadadaa, and bababababa.

- You like to sleep with ducky.

- Your favourite foods are peas, cheerios & pears.

- You are such a great eater
  
- We just learned today that you are allergic to eggs. We thought we would let you try a couple pieces of egg and you really enjoyed it. But then we noticed right away that you immediately started breaking out in hives. We quickly wiped your face and hands down and gave you lots of water. And to the hospital we went. The plows hadn't made it out on the roads yet so we had to travel relatively slow. What a scare! The doctor told us to go and get some benadryl and to keep an eye on you for the next 24 hours. Before bed you broke out in a couple of more hives. Hopefully you will feel better tomorrow! The doctor made an allergy test appointment for us.

- You are getting better at feeding yourself.

- You are an expert jolly jumper. You love a big audience to show this off.

- You are starting to make strange with people

- You wear size 3 diapers.

- For clothes you are in 6-9,6-12, 9 & 12 months

- You popped your first tooth! It's on the bottom right.

-You are not a very good sleeper. You wake at around 10pm, 2:30am, 5am and up for the day at 7am.

- You are very ticklish

- You have the best personality! You are so funny and love to laugh

- When you are tired or hungry, watch out!

- You weigh approx 22lbs

- You don't miss a thing, you turn your head at any sound and you are very curious.

- You are still breastfed except for your feeding before bed.

- You love to clap your hands, give kisses, wave hi, and give high fives 

These pictures are from the last month :)

This is when you were first mastering the art of picking up things. You are now an old pro and LOVE your Cheerios

Morning playtimes in your nest

Trying so hard

Great-Grandpa and Willow xo

Hanging with your friends Grace & Carter

This frightens me

We love you to the moon and back Willow Rae xoxoxoxoxoox

Dreaming Of Warmer Days

These amazing temperatures we have been having this past week have me aching for summer. Ooooh I can smell the bbq's, I can taste the icey cold beer and feel that warm sun baking my body. I would be the happiest if winter was only a couple of months long and stayed around -5C. I LOVE the snow but could easily deal without the deep freeze.

I am just going  through our Mexico pictures and am positive there will be some similar pictures this summer! (just no turquoise water or palm trees)

We bought a hammock to put in our sunroom! Major cuddle sessions are going to go down

love

I had to put my red lips on for "happy hour"

Daddy is an old pro at putting Willow to sleep

Nothing better than a snooze on the beach!

Plus 10

I don't mean to toot my own horn here but you are reading the blog of an animal whisperer. I am soooo good at spotting wild animals and am overly obsessed with them and could watch them forever. Don't be confused though, as much as I love them, I am totally scared out of my mind of them. I would not want to be walking by myself and see a lynx, cougar, wolf, bear, coyote or any other type of carnivorous animal of the wild type. I would totally panic and probably pee in my pants. I live in a National Park and probably always will, I need to get over this fear of being by myself outside. I seriously am terrified of letting my dogs out at night. Embarrassing, I know. There is something about Moose though. They don't freak me out. Maybe it's because I see them more than any other animal (besides deer). I probably should be scared of them as I witnessed one charge J in our front yard and have heard some pretty freaky stories of others being charged, but Moose are my homies. I am in love.

J & I have a pretty nerdy wicked competition going on. We have a point system for who sees a wild animal first. I was kicking his hiney harrrrd. Until this day....

I spotted this beauty from afar. She was spooked easily and ran into the forest pretty quickly. Either way she was considered a plus two.

And then it wasn't even a minute later when J said "Shhhhh, look".

And this beauty was watching us while soaking in the sun.

 She did not even flinch when she saw us. She was soaking up that warm sun and chomping on her sweet cud, right beside us!

J definitely got a plus 10 for this find. Ugh he is in the lead.

Yes, this is how you must keep yourself entertained when you see more animals than people on a regular basis. ;P

Winter Fun With Jaye

I am always saying how we moved here at the worst time. Everything is shut down for the winter and everyone's summer homes sit here looking so sad. They just hang out and yearn for winter to be over and summer to begin so they have their owners fill them with love, laughter, warmth, and life. Yes, I am overly sensitive and get sad for abandoned homes, ghost towns, trees that sit all by themselves, fallen leaves (even though they look so pretty) etc, but let's not even get into that :p.

I really don't have much to complain about because we have been so busy with visitors and visiting. It's making this winter fly by! I love it. We still haven't met any friends here besides Les and Mark (Mark is moving though) but that's ok because our old friends are awesome and we get to hang out with them a lot!

My best friend Jaye came out here for a weekend and it was so nice to have girl time.

I took her to a house concert at a B&B close by. Have you ever been to a house concert? Talk about intimate. It's so nice that a local place hosts these four times a year. You bring your own booze, bring a snack to share and everyone cozes into the living room and listens to some awesome music. That night they were featuring Red Moon Road.

They are a wicked Manitoban band and play a good diverse mix of tunes. Check em' out http://www.redmoonroad.com/

They had some fun winter activities going on this winter. It's so weird even seeing a couple of people out and about as it doesn't happen often. You forget that people actually live here besides us and tourists just stopping by for the day. 

I like partaking in any kind of eating activity

Instead of walking on the nice snow plowed roads, J likes to take us on adventures.

A couple of locals slept in the "snow hotel" that weekend. It was very cozy

My tallest friend and my two shortest friends

Jaye enjoying some delicious hot chocolate in the warm up shack

Willow's first sleigh ride

Jaye looks especially cute in this picture

Not pictured: Wine, gossip, wedding talk, major relaxation, & tea