Blob update :)

Hi all! I thought it was about time I shed some light onto the current day blobs. It's been a while since I stopped their monthly updates, so thought it would be interesting to show you how much they've grown!

Brooke is now 17 months and is a little ball of character. I often think how strange life would have been without this little thing. She brings so much fun to our family and makes us laugh daily. Her main loves are cat's {not influenced by me at all haha}, dolly's and dancing. She LOVES to dance {which is almost a type of interpretive dance at this point} and starts throwing her little body around when any sort of beat comes on. Even if she is sitting down in her high chair, she bobs her head from side to side without even thinking about it. In the future, we hope to get her into a dance class or playing an instrument because she has taken such an early interest to music.

Speaking is coming alot more naturally to Brooke than it is Bennett. She now can say a number of words {Mum, Daddy, hi, no, all done and who's/whats that} and babbles all the time. She loves speaking on the phone, I will usually call Ryan at work and let her talk for a couple minutes.

Bennett is now 27 months {I just had to work that out. Don't worry peeps, I am not one of those people that counts months until the child is 40!}. He is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met in my life. There is a quality to him that is observant and I love seeing him watching the world.

He is still not talking much but can say some words {all of which would never actually help him communicate what he wants}. He can say "Woody"{from Toy Story, of course}, "Wow", "Go", "Car" and then his word of choice for most things "Dada". He understands alot more then what he communicates though, like if we tell him its bath he will run upstairs. He has an audiology appointment this week as we want to rule out any hearing issues. If everything comes back clear though, I have decided I just want to let him talk in his own time.

He loves Toy Story, Buzz and Woody are always close by. He even sleeps with little soft versions of them at night. Bennett is a playful boy and loves running around, just being a toddler. Ryan usually takes this job after work and runs around after him, flips him up in the air and let's him climb. It's amazing seeing this little baby of mine growing in a little boy.

I love to see the difference in the babies {Yes I am still calling them that, it hurts my heart to call them toddlers haha}. Like I said before, Bennett is the sweetest little boy who loves deeply and is even tempered. Brooke is also sweet but has a sass to her that makes her so funny! She can be happy one minute and then switch her temper to angry, within seconds. She has less patience for things than Bennett does but also has strong interests. Bennett is super cuddly, if I want my baby cuddle fix, I know without a doubt Bennett will give me the time. Brooke can be cuddly but she always wants to be where the action is, so if something happens around her she is pushing away.

The thing I love seeing most every day is their friendship blossom. They still share a room and every morning when they wake up, Brooke goes over to Bennett and say's "Hi". He always gives her a smile and sometimes she will pat his head or even climb into his bed. They both giggle and it's pretty much the cutest thing EVER. Of course they are together 24/7, so play really nicely together and get on so well. They like the same movies, like going on walks and even get into mischief together!! {the pantry is never safe around these two}.

Well there you have it! A little look into the life of these blobs I am so lucky to call mine.  I will leave you with a few pictures :) xxx

Bad day :(

I think most people that know me, or read this blog know that I am quite unorganized when it comes to important things. Important, adult related things, like making sure the bills are paid on time....or even opening the bills in the first place.

I have gotten better over the years, I even check to make sure my truck has fuel in it before I drive (no more side of the road break downs for me!). Old habits do die hard though and one thing I totally forget to do recently is get my license renewed :(

Well that came back to bite me in the bottom today when I was pulled over for speeding. The officer was SO MEANNNNNN and slapped me with three additional tickets on top of the speeding one that totalled almost $1000. Yes, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS, think of how many Laura Ashley duvet covers I could have bought with that.

Needless to say, I was quite upset. Ryan is always calm and comforting when I get irrational {imagine me pulling up to his work site with crazy hair, mascara running down my face and waving tickets in the air} and he thinks I can get out of a couple of them. So I have been responsible and already contacted a man who does that kind of thing.

In the meantime I am using this as yet another lesson to slow down {in life and in vehicle} and get reorganized. One of these days I will be free and clear of instances like this! xxx

P.S. The one good thing to come out of this is that I found my passport while looking for my insurance slip! {god know's why it was in the truck haha}.

Laura Ashley

There are so many things I should be doing right now, my children are literally running around like wild holligans in diapers. The thing is that I just happened to log into my email this morning and guess what?! Laura Ashley has a sale people. I REPEAT, LAURA ASHLEY HAS A SALE.

Just in case you didn't know, Laura Ashley is my favorite shop in England. It just so happens that we are going to England in May, so I am thinking I might order a few little bits and have them sent to my Mum for when I arrive. It's clever really, I will be going to go to Laura Ashley regardless this visit, so I might as well have preshopped some of the sales, right?

I bet when I tell Ryan he will be so pleased. A Laura Ashley shop that actually saved us money. I'm sure he will be thinking how happy he is to have married me. He'll probably even tell me to do it more often!

Anyways, enough of me bragging about my shopping abilities, here's a few reasons why I love Laura Ashley so much.

• Literally everything in LA is pretty. I love the feeling I first get when I step into it....a mixture of bliss and a feeling of wanting to buy everything in sight :)

Sadly this is probably not far off from how I look when I go Laura Ashley. 

• The floral prints produced from LA are down right splendid. I am already a sucker for anything floral but they {along with Cath Kidston} produce some of the loveliest prints I have ever seen.

• My Mum used to own some dresses from Laura Ashley that I grew up looking at in her closet. I think the dress she got married in could have also been Laura Ashley. So really this is all my Mum's fault, I was drip fed Laura Ashley from a young age :) Princess Diana was also known to sport Laura Ashley from time to time. Here she is wearing one of their skirts! 

                                            

• They sell wallpaper! Most people hate wallpaper but I LOOOOOVE it! I think there is a lack of it in this city of mine. It's just sooooo English and full of character. I purchased some last year for our bedroom and have been trying to convince Ryan to put it up ever since.

• Lastly, they sell children's bedroom accessories!!!!!! I know some people will read this and think, so what? But after becoming a Mum, I slowly realized there is a shortage for quality bedroom stuff when it comes to kids. So naturally, I frequently scour the web for Laura Ashley kids bedroom inspiration. 

I only have ONE criticism for Laura Ashley and that is that they don't sell it here in Canada. Actually they don't even deliver to Canada :( Good thing I have my connections in England! Now off to do some online shopping, wish me luck! xxx

Christmas 2015

I did my posts a little backwards this month and did my New Years post before my Christmas one. Either way, Christmas 2015 has come and gone...wahhhhh. I LOVE CHRISTMAS and I quite honestly never feel ready for it to be finished. Oh well...I will just have to look forward to the next holiday {heart decorations will slowly start taking over my house haha}.

This year was so much fun, Ryan took the entire two weeks off and my family also joined us from England again. We spent Christmas Eve with my inlaws and Christmas dinner was at my sisters house.

The days leading up to Christmas were so Christmassy {apparently that's not a word but I think it should be}. It was all snowy and cozy and we ended up doing some festive things like the Spruce Meadows lights, watching movies and eating.

The blob babes were absolutely spoiled again this year and are both having fun playing with all of their toys. I am putting off taking down the tree because I have not found anything quite as twinkly or magical to take its place yet {OK, ok and its also so much work haha}.

Anyways, here are some pictures of our holiday! I hope everyone had a lovely day with their family and friends! xxx

New Years 2016

It's officially 2016!! We rang in the new year like two old people  responsible parents by staying home with our babies and watching a movie.

In all fairness, we did intend to go over to our friends house but I was sad {having just said goodbye to my family at the airport} and still getting over a cold. So home sounded like the best option for us.

We watched The Martian, Matt Damons new movie {who I am now officially in love with} but paused it at midnight so we could count down and give the babies a kiss.

So to stick with my tradition of making resolution's that I don't keep, here are my 2016 resolutions :)

1. WAIT FOR IT.....Get healthy. I know....super original.

2. Be more frugal. Ok this one is a legitimate goal that I intend to keep. I am pretty good at not spending too much but I also LOVE to shop. A strange buzz fills my body when I enter a mall. I LOVE getting excited over a purchase that I have wanted for a while or is on sale. I also love shopping for cute clothes for my children. It's all too fun. This year, however, we have two holidays planned and I also want to get a good bit of savings behind us. Soooooo the mall may have to be an activity I do on special occasions ;)

3. Keep a journal {offline}. What I think is usually recorded on this little blog of mine, which I like to have to look back on. This probably sounds weird but I don't even remember writing half of what I write. So it's funny to read an old post and see what was going on in my mind at that moment. Plus I love all the pictures of my babies. This year though, I am also hoping to jot down thoughts and my weight tracking {which is DEFO not going online for the world to see haha} in a more old fashioned way. I bought this really cute Kate Spade journal {don't worry peeps...it was before my second resolution} and I have been using it quite well so far!

4. Complete my Florist course. I don't know if I have ever told you this but I have always wanted to be a florist. I imagine owning a shop one day {called The English Roses} and having all my family working with me. That will be a few years from now but the first step is starting to work in the industry as a florist. In order to do that, you have to complete a three part certification through Mt. Royal. So the first segment starts either next month or in the late spring.

5. Read more. 

6. Have a better work schedule. I do bookkeeping for Ryan's company and SUCK AT IT! When I was young {and struggling in Math} I would have laughed at the person that said I would be a Bookkeeper one day. I went and did the course BUUUUT I still don't like it. Math/office work is booooooring! Either way, I do like to support Ryan {especially as he works so hard to make sure I can be home with our babes}....so I am hoping to commit to being more organized with my company work.

Anyways, that is them all. Let's hope I stick to them!!!!! Happy New Year!! xxx

Plates and such

I am English {as most of you know}, so I feel as if it was beyond my control when it came to starting a tea set. It was a need that was instinctive and necessary, I couldn't fight it!!! It also may have been SLIGHTLY influenced by the fact that my twin sister has one.....buy only slightly ;)

So this year for my birthday I was lucky enough to get the start of a set. Unlike most, I thought it would be cool to have a more eclectic set of different prints and was super happy when that's exactly what I got!

My friend Anna got me a tea cup and saucer from the Rose Confetti collection and Ryan got me a set of mugs {which are all different prints} from the 100 years of RA collection. With some birthday money, I also got a tea pot set from the Vintage Polka collection. I can already imagine all the different afternoon teas I will have with this set!

 Anyways, now you know the much needed history behind the origins of my set, I wanted to bring you to my next topic....how to display it. I know that it could have comfortably sat behind a cupboard door but where is the fun in that people?! So I set out on a quest to find a display case. I actually found a really nice one at Ikea but Ryan quickly decided to vito that choice when he found out it was $500 {an investment really!}.

So after much deliberation we settled on this thing......

Isn't it uggo?!?!?! I wanted something that was sort of an open display rack and this was the closest I could find. Of course I couldn't leave it like this! So Ryan eased the edges and reshaped them into a much prettier shape, then I painted it. Here is the end result......

Isn't is cute?! I LOVE it! It works quite well in the kitchen and cost us less then $100. OF COURSE I had to go and order some more Royal Albert with the extra savings, it only seemed logical! xxx

Blob Christmas!

Since we are now in December, I thought it would be nice to share the babies Christmas photo with Santa Claus! Plus I am desperately finding anything else to do other than the work that is piling up as we speak :)

Last year was sort of a dud but I LOVED the outcome. Brooke looked absolutely confused with life and Bennett thought Santa was terrifying. It made my day :)

This year I decided to continue the torture tradition and bring them back again to see the man in red. They still hate him but to my disappointment excitement managed to somewhat hold it together. I suppose it was a good thing as Santa was much less stressed holding them haha.

On a side note, where are all the nice mall Santa's you see in movies? This one was better than the rest but the one last year was awful. I still look at his happy face and know its a lie, he was pure evil! He told me off for showing his face to Bennett before I placed him on his lap. Santa is not supposed to tell off 28 year old's who gave birth to not one but TWO children in a year. He wasn't there again this year......maybe he fell off his sleigh or something :) 

Anyways, sorry to cut this short but I am off to do my ever mounting pile of paper work. WHY am I so unorganized? Wish me luck! xxx

One month!

Wow it's been almost one month since I last posted! Whoops :)

So, what's new?! We were supposed to go away this month but had to cancel our holiday due to Ryan's work. So we just stuck around the house and in turn have had some really nice weekends.

Here is what we have been up to lately :)

Professional pictures:

We did another session of pictures with Gingersnap photography for fall. It was around the same time last year that we had her come and do Brooke's newborns, so it's quite cute to see the changes. I hate pictures and didn't intend to be in them. I am glad I stepped in for a few though because there are some sweet ones with the babes. Take a peek! P.S. Those faces MELT my heart!

Halloween:

Halloween is always fun but this year it was extra special with Bennett and Brooke. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and even understood the concept of going to neighbors doors to get candy. My brother and sister came over to trick or treat with us, then we came home to eat a takeaway and watch a scary movie.  It's becoming quite the tradition actually! We have done that every year so far since Bennett has been born.

My 29th birthday:

Actually I should say OUR birthday, as I share it with my twinster. Carly took the day off work {ummmm who actually works on their birthday?} and we went shopping of course!! The babies were both unwell so we didn't do too many shops but just enough to feel satisfied with our trip. Then we went our for dinner and home for dessert and presents. We were actually SPOILED ROTTEN this year {not that I am complaining}. Here is a picture of everything we got....is that rude? I don't want to be braggy but it's just so nice to open presents that someone has bought specifically for you. I will never be that adult that says "dont worry about getting presents for me" because let's admit it peeps....who doesn't love a good gift once in a while?! :) I also got a bonus birthday dinner a few days later from my in-laws which involved pizza and a new coat. Like I said, I was spoiled :)

Sickness:

Both my babies have been a little under the weather lately. Brooke picked up MRSA and developed a very painful boil on her bottom {good thing it wasn't me as my bottom is not something that I wan't to have on show!!!}. It got so bad that she had to have a procedure to have it lanced. It was HORRIBLE to watch them put her "under". It's not the typical put you to sleep kind of thing anymore. Instead they feed a solution of some sort through an IV that essentially makes them unaware of what is happening. First of all the IV was torture to get in. They had to have me, a male nurse and a female nurse hold Brooke down because she was so upset. Her veins kept blowing so it took about 45 minutes to finally get one in. Then when they fed the solution through, it was so sad to see her float off to space. Her eyes went all weird {similar to Ryan's when he is drunk!! haha} and she just wasn't there any more. Either way we got through it and her boil healed ok. Bennett picked up MRSA off Brook but didn't have the procedure. He just had a course of antibiotics and it seems to be gone now. Phew, this parenting thing is stressful!

Dates and DIY:

We have managed to go on a few date nights to the movie theater thanks to my sissy and Ryan's parents! I just realized it was 11 years recently since our first date. Isn't that CRAZY?! We also have continued doing a few things to the house. The next project is our basement reno, so this weekend we organized and cleaned out alot of stuff down there {pure torture}.

2004-2006 {The first couple years we spent together!}

Christmas:

Lastly, I have started to get ready for the most wonderful time of the year! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas! My parent's also surprised us too and have managed to book tickets to spend yet another year with us! I cannot wait! This is what our street looked like on Saturday, every year the community puts up lights on the arches. It's starting to feel festive.

Also, Ryan's 30th birthday is on December 16th so I am working with a friend to do a joint surprise party. He has no idea....its adorable!

Anyways, this is getting a little longer than I originally intended and Brooke is pawing at my feet, so I had better go! Have a nice evening!! xxx

Bennett is two!!!

Am I actually writing a post about Bennett being two? I suppose I am. sigh. Yes my baby is two and these last two years have been nothing short of amazing!

So two. I am actually looking forward to this year! There is nothing to be sad about when it comes to a healthy, happy boy growing up. Although I am slightly freaking out about the fact that I am 29 and am a mother of two. Ummmm when did I grow up?! haha.

Bennett had two special days this year, his party the week before and then his actual birthday, which fell on a weekday. Obsessed is an understatement to how he feels towards Toy Story right now, so of course we had to do a Toy Story party!

 For the actual day we just had a relaxed, low key sort of day. We started by having breakfast and face-timing with England. They watched him open their pressies which were all super cute! After that my sis gave the babes a bath and then I took Bennett out for some time alone with him. I decided to take him to McDonald's for lunch because I love big macs  he loves nuggets and it has a huge play place. Nuggets were a hit, play place not so much. I sent him up the structure thinking he would have so much fun. Well I started hearing little voices within the tunnels saying "move baby" and quickly realized that there had been no kids coming down the slide in a while. So I tried to call Bennett down but heard nothing but more complaining from the other kids. Much to my dismay I had to ascend the play structure and make my way through a traffic jam of tiny people until I reached the source of the clog. Little Bennett had gotten to the top and was physically shaking/refusing to go any further. Kids were actually pushing at him and he had secured himself like a little starfish with his feet and hands. I managed to coax him towards the only exit which was a slide. I slid down with him and instead of gliding down, I ungracefully stuck the entire way!! I had to sort of half push myself down/half hold Bennett. Oh and if you are wondering, yes I was 100% regretting my Big Mac decision. Pity looks were all over the other parents faces when I emerged red faced and disheveled from the stupid tunnel slide but I had rescued the birthday boy and that's all that mattered. I ended up just taking him back to our local park and letting him play there until it was time to pick up Brookey.

After that both the blobs napped and then we had my sister and brother over for pizza and presents. It was a cute day for a cute boy.


    

Here are his stats!

WEIGHT: 27.6 lbs

ROUTINE: We have had lots of visits this year which always puts off the routine slightly {who wants to go to bed at 9pm when you have visitors in your house?!} but he is now back to going to bed around 9-9:30 after bath time. He also takes a nap every afternoon for 2-3 hours {while Brooke does too!}.

MILESTONES: Bennett has grown alot since my last post on him! He is really strong and loves be be outside running around. He also plays alot with Brooke and enjoys the park. His favourite show is still Peppa pig and he is OBSESSED with the movies "Wreck it Ralph", "Toy Story" and is starting to appreciate "Frozen". Brooke and him are always together and they get along so well. He sometimes tries to ride her like a horse but otherwise they are usually playing with his train table or chasing each other around. He shows compassion towards animals {specifically cats....he is SO my child!} and loves riding the skateboard with Daddy. He still doesn't talk much and had to go see a speech therapist recently. He does communicate with us, its just mainly the words "dada", "wow" and "ow" when he hurts himself. Then sometimes he surprises us and says a word perfectly and appropriately. On his birthday he said "Woody" when he opened his toy Woody doll from my Mum. Plus the other day he said he wanted to "go outside" to my sis. I am not taking him back to speech therapy for a while until I really have concern for his speech. All children learn at different paces so I am just going to focus on encouraging him and giving him a loving environment.

Happy birthday little man, we love you so much!!!!!!!!

My toe

I know no one wants to be reading about my toe but this blog is about my life and right now my life consists of trying to fix my toe. Ryan thinks it may fall off tonight, it looks that bad! I am off to the doctors tomorrow but in the meantime....soaking, soaking, soaking. That is all :)