Saturday started out as such a great day! The sun was shinning so I got G to fix the clothes line and I hung Austin’s Fuzzi Bunz out to dry. I’m a dork I know but this is truly the sign that summer is approaching:

G went to pick up the babysitter and we were going to be off on an afternoon date at the spa, that was until my phone rang at 12:30 and G told me he was in a car accident. Lots of drama was followed by a trip to the ER. Thankfully our babysitter was perfectly okay. G on the other hand is still hurting and will be starting physio this week. Just what we needed. 2010 has not been kind to us health wise…..that soon has to change! Anywho this is what our car looks like now:

Needless to say we will be getting a new car. Our dealer is trying to put together the same lease deal for us (we had a sweet, sweet deal!) and I’m waiting to hear back from him to see what they can do for us. Ahh….a trip down south really sounds like a great idea right now…..

A simple thank you

I have been doing a lot of work on my life for a while. Anyone who knows me knows that my type A, everything needs to be planned personality can make changes to my plans hard for me to deal with. I had a vision of what life with my husband was going to be like and our first year of marriage was nothing like I had planned. We bough a house and tried for a family and that did not work out as I had planned.

When Austin came into my world, life threw us a curve ball with his weight gaining issues and that threw my plans for maternity leave and for my well planned out mothering approach for a loop. Let’s face it, I do not deal well with stress when the life of my child is at stake! I’ve written about this before so I won’t go in to detail again. The purpose of this post is to tell you that today I sent a simple thank you to a woman who has changed my life.

I’ve written about Kelle Hampton and shared a link to her birth story before. Today I wrote her to thank her for helping me change my perspective and for inspiring me to make real changes to my attitude and approach to life and happiness. Kelle has been changing people’s lives and she has certainly had an affect on mine. I wrote to her with no expectation that she would read my email, let alone take the time to write me back. This woman has been getting attention from media around the world and I am sure she is bombarded with emails, letters and the like. Well about 5 minutes after I clicked send, she responded. I am still a little amazed but am grateful that she took the time to write me. She thanked me for my words and mentioned how adorable Austin is (of course I sent her a picture…I am that mom that carries his picture around in my wallet and shows him off to everyone, besides this blog is really just a very, very public brag book!).

I encourage you to visit Enjoying the Small Things and soak in her happiness…trust me it really is contagious!

Happy Birthday Wishes and this week's weigh in

Happy Birthday Laura!!! I hope that you have a wonderful day and I promise I will send the snickerdoodle cupcake recipe this week! In the meantime enjoy the 7 minute icing on your cake today!

Well the good news is that I lost weight this week, the bad news is that I don't really how much because I gained last week, knew it and did not get on the scale to face the harsh reality that I had failed. This week I'm feeling much more optimistic! Bright and early this morning I was at Met field getting in a walk/run...and it was snowing. Okay not major snow but it was enough to make me ears freeze (of course I wasn't wearing a hat!) and then I got that cold ear burn and headache so I decided to cut the last walk/run segment and head home to the heat.

The plan for this week is walk/run three times, two evening family walks, yoga on Thursday and two 30 Day Shread workouts. My goal is to earn a minimum of  15 Activity points...One of the girls' on the WW board earned 75 points last week...75! I am envious and completely aware that she does not have a gorgeous Monkey to divide her time with but man that is impressive! It is something to strive for.

Today we're hanging out, Austin just woke up from his nap and is going to have some lunch. We're going to have a playdate and dinner at a friend's house tonight and I'm really looking forward to getting out.

Too cute to keep this one to myself!

Think, Think, Think...

Deliciously evil!

Saturday turned out to be a miserable sort of day. So Austin and I baked these:

Snickerdoodle cupcakes. Now if you have ever had a snickedoodle cookie you are well aware that they are delicious and addicting…the cupcake is no different and tasted EXACTLY like the cookie. I was doing okay with not eating the cupcakes though…that is until I made the Seven Minute frosting that Martha’s peeps recommend for topping them. I have never made the frosting (also called boiled icing) before. Well it turned out to be beyond dangerous!!! When it was ready to be piped unto the cupcakes, I had a taste. It was just like eating homemade marshmallow before it sets up! I must have eaten about 6 or 7 spoonfuls after I was done icing the cupcakes. I physically had to leave the room in order to stay away from it. Oh so good! For the sake of my weight loss goal I don’t think I can ever make it again…except maybe when I go to NL this summer. Janice will LOVE these!!!!!

Sunday was a great day. It started very early at 6:15am when my little man put his hands on my face and said “Momma? Owside? Bubbles!!” I had made the mistake of leaving the blind up and he could clearly see that the sun was shinning and as he is yet unable to read a clock did not realize that Mommies like to sleep on Sunday mornings at 6:15am. I pulled out some books and we read and cuddle for about 30 minutes until he declared that it was time for “supper” and yet again asked for bubbles. Downstairs we went. I put a coat on over his jammies and sent him out on the deck while I made coffee. We stayed outside for most of the morning, coming it to eat, shower and change fluffy bottoms. We also put out bread to feed the birds. I’m sure he is part Follett the way he goes crazy over the birdies!

I started my learn to run group Sunday night at the track. After the first couple of running spurts I thought I was going to have a heart attack! My chest was tight and I had that feeling of wanting to quit because it was hard….but I didn’t. I finished the session and am actually looking forward to tonight’s run....now to refrain from baking this week and maybe, just maybe the scale might move!!

Saturday morning

When G and I first got married, Saturday mornings were spent cuddled in bed, talking about what we wanted to do that weekend and day dreaming about our dream home. We'd leisurely make our way out of bed by 10, grab brunch at Cora's and go about our day.

After we bought our house, Saturday mornings were spent in bed picking out colours and talking about our renovation plans. We'd get out of bed around 10 and get to work on our house for a few hours before grabbing lunch out.

Then I got pregnant and Saturday mornings were spent in the bathroom, me gripped with morning sickness and G rubbing my back. As my belly swelled and the morning sickness subsided, we's lay in bed and talk about all the things we needed to do before the baby came.

Now that Austin is here (and is a very busy toddler) Saturday mornings start at 6am. He calls out from his room and one of us hauls ourselves out of bed to go get him. We then spend an hour or so reading books, tickling Monkey and being used as his jungle gym. He laughs and laughs. He runs out to his room and gets a book and comes back asking us to read. Soon enough he askes for "supper" (every meal is supper) and we all get up and start our day.

Saturday mornings may no longer start at 10am with brunch out but there is still lots of cuddling and day dreaming. Nothing beats hearing your name being called by the cutest child ever and him being so happy to see us walking through his door. Some mornings I really wish that call wasn't coming until 8am but still it's worth it.

Now off to 10am swimming lessons and then hopefully the sun will come out and we can make our way to the park. Happy Saturday morning.

Next comes Mount Everest!

Last night I was chatting on the phone when I heard a loud THUD and then the pitter patter of Monkey's feet as the cried out for his mommy. He managed to climb out of his crib! I'm not sure how he did it, I am guessing that he used the bumper to hoist himself up and then flipped over the rail. So just days after bragging that I have never had any issues with Monkey trying to get out of his crib, I now need to convert his crib to a toddler bed. G and I are going to redecorate the guest room for him at some point but we need to renovate the closets between the two rooms first... another project for my list.

This is another one of those moments when I miss my little baby. He is really becoming a little boy right before my eyes.

Can you write a caption for this photo??!

An Eggs-trodinary day

Today was as close to perfect as I could ask for. Austin slept in until 7 and played quietly in his crib until about 7:30...well quietly might be a strech, I heard cat and dog sounds and then he was "whistling" (aka screaming at the top of his lungs musically). We got up, had breakfast and headed outside. Austin helped me put the eggs around the yard. I had to bring him inside to keep him from making a pile with the eggs that we had just scattered around.

Once Austin's friends arrived, we gave them each a basket and let them loose in the yard to find the eggs.

Mackenzie searching hard...

Clare helping Austin put the eggs in his basket

All finished with the eggs, the kids moved onto the sandbox table

Some silly shots:

After all the kids went home Austin had the shortest nap in history. When he woke up we ran a few errands and then after supper Austin wanted to go back outside. I grabbed the bubbles and we started blowing. Austin loves bubbles. He squeels with delight and chases them around the yard. His eyes have such a great glow to them and it just makes me happy to watch him so happy. He ended up drinking some of the suds when it was his turn to blow but then he burped a bubble and laughed a real true belly laugh which in turn made me laugh.

 

He has had his bath (with even more bubbles) and is all ready to be cuddled and sung off to sleep. Tomorrow morning is Easter and I am picking my mother up at the airport at 7:20am. We are so excited. I can't wait to share the joy of Austin with her. You seriously can not have a bad day around my little boy...he just makes my heart sing.

Easter baking

These are vanilla bean and citrus cupcakes form the Marth Stewart cupcake boook (the batter recipe for the Coconut Chicks) I found the batter way too think so I added an extra half cup of butter milk. The peeps cupcakes are for the egg hunt and the nest with the eggs is for Mark's dedication on Sunday.

These cookies are the Company's Coming basic sugar cookie dough recipe, decorated with royal icing. This was the first time that I decorated cookies like this, and though it was a bit time consuming to get the icing consistency right, it was well worth the time and effort.