Are you there Bloggers? It's me, Amy...

Keira is at a weird age, where she likes playing with EVERYTHING, but doesn't grasp the idea of Christmas yet. So her getting a pretty equal number of toys is strictly for Garett to see. 1. Leap Frog cash register: I got mine for $16 at Costco, but they are $26.99 at Toys R Us 2. Kitchen Appliance set: $19.99 on Zulily  3. Cleaning set $$14.99 on Zulily 4. Dish set $10 at Walmart 5. Another cleaning set (she loves fake cleaning) $15 at Walmart 6. Mega Bloks $15 at Walmart 7. Tumbling block zebra $25 at Walmart 8. Counting Clock $22.99 at Walmart 9. Disney Kitchen $99.99 at Toys R Us 10. Shopping cart and play food: $27.99 on Zulily

Garett is a little boy that has many interests. He is so easy to shop for, which makes Christmas a dangerous time of year for me, so I really have to reign it in so I don't spoil him too much. He loves sports and music, but I think we have that covered with all of the instruments he has, and all of the extracurricular activities he is part of. So I really wanted to keep this Christmas fun for him. Just toys. Here are the things I have bought from his list: 1. Lego Minecraft: Iron Golem set. $24.86 at Walmart 2. Kidizoom Digital Camera. $59.96 at Walmart  3. Lego Minecraft: Mushroom Island. $24.86 at Walmart  4. Transformers Bumblebee. $25.94 at Walmart 5. Sqweeks robot: $99.99 at Toys R Us 6. Nerf Modulus: $89.95 at Toys R Us 7. Edu Science Rock Tumbler: $54.99 at Toys R Us 8. Paw Patroller $57.94 at Walmart right now  9. Veterinary table : $34.99 on Zulily 10. Pick up truck and Kabota and trailer : $35.99 ...

Today I am loving... ....That I figured out how to upload pictures on my blog from work, since the app is still garbage! ...Nature's Path organic "Love Crunch" premium granola with dark chocolate chunks and coconut shavings. It's my new snack at my desk if I need something quick! ...I picked up some veggie "sushi" rolls for lunch today, but I need to start bringing my lunches again. ...That Shannon and I went to the gym again last night, and tried the circuit out, and it was really fun, and I'm not sore today! ...I have a quiet night on Friday with Tyler and G gone to the Christmas party. Just Keira and I, and she goes to bed at 7, so I'll be  able to watch an episode of my show alone, or take a bath! ...Saturday night Tyler is out of the house for a bit for his Uncle's birthday party, so another episode I can watch ( I think). If I can stay awake LOL. ...Sunday we will hopefully do something all together. when it's cold outside...

My Type-A characteristics have gotten the better of me. I feel a sudden urgency to plan for my trip, figure out what we will be doing, and start getting ready. 15 weeks, folks. It's a long time, but I am a freak who needs a plan well in advance. So, with my research for excursions all wrapped up, here is what I have come up with. We will pick 3 or 4 of them, and save the rest for next time we are in Mexico. 1.Private or Shared Temazcal Unique Mayan Ritual from Cancun We have NEVER done anything like this before, anywhere we went. I think seeing an authentic sweat lodge, and partaking in a ceremony would be amazing! Meet your guide in your hotel lobby (for the private tour) or at the meeting point in Cancun (for the shared tour) between 4pm-5pm to begin this truly unique experience. Head to the Home of Hot Stones, the lodge where the temazcal ceremony takes place. Listen to an introductory talk from the temazcalero guide, who will answer questions, then participate in ...

This time of year , I always feel like I'm spiraling out of control, unable to keep up with my personal life/social life/work life. So this little nook (my blog), always kind of takes the backseat to everything, even though I do love coming here to document stuff to look back on later/for the kids to look at when they're all grown up and be more connected to me/know what my day to days were like. So, oops! Garett: -only has 4 more swimming lessons at the Salamander Level, and then he will become a starfish. -only has 3 more Canskate lessons as well before he graduates to the next level. He is doing so well, so I said once he has perfected his skating, he can start hockey. -I signed him up for Basketball Lessons that start in January, for nine weeks. He has been asking for this for quite some time, and being that he's four now, he can partake. - Signed him up for a 7 week introductory Martial Arts class that will start as soon as the instructor lets me know which cla...

Today I am loving... ....that it's already Wednesday! I realize it's a short week, and I've only been at work for two days, but short weeks typically go a lot slower to me, and hump day is always a welcomed light at the end of the tunnel! ...that we are having a kid-free evening on Saturday. We haven't had both kids out of the house for a night yet!  We usually go out and then come home! ...almost all of the gifts I ordered for Christmas are in. The kids toys are stored in boxes and garbage bags in the basement, and the stuff for others is upstairs, ready to be wrapped. ...I put all of the fall décor away, and will put the winter stuff out soon. Christmas tree will probably wait until second or third week of December though, because I suspect this will be a very hard year for little miss Keira to keep her hands -off haha ...planning our March trip. So far , the search for where we are going is yielding no results. Direct flights are a dime a dozen, and it'...

I am on an extra-long-weekend-high right now. I came into work 30 minutes early, and the day has been flying by! This weekend was so nice in the sense that we didn't have much planned, and we knew it would be a quiet one (with two busy ones coming up!). Thursday night, Tyler came home with a bouquet of flowers from his cousins flower business. "Just Because"...which are my favourite kind of flowers! the kids were in bed at the usual time and I decided to unwind with a nice long bubble bath with some of our new Aromatherapy bath foams from Bath and Body Works. That night was the Orange and Ginger "Energy" foam. Yes, that was a good idea! We watched some tv and were also in bed pretty early! Friday we got up and took the kids to school/daycare together , and then we went home and I scrubbed the powder room on the mainfloor from top to bottom, did some laundry, and I went through ALL of our books. We had some books that we had quadruple copies of! I guess we li...

I'm LOVING: ...that today is my "Thursday". I am off Friday to go to Garett's school Remembrance Day ceremony. One of my friends is a "Major" in the armed forces, so her and I will be going to lunch afterwards (she is coming to lay a wreath at the ceremony). ...that Keira got her 15 month shots yesterday, and did very well. She is in the 75th percentile for height , and 50th for weight. Garett goes in three weeks for his 4-5 year old shots--I told him what to expect, and he seems ok with it. He will go with Tyler when Tyler gets his allergy shots, so he will maybe get some courage from seeing daddy get shots too. ...that I am done my Christmas shopping , aside from a few more little things! Now they are all coming in, and I can wrap a little at a time. I am hiding them in boxes/under tarps under the stairs in the basement. Garett never looks there, and especially not in boxes lol ...this weekend we will go buy everything we need to decorate for the co...

You know what? Christmas still feels like it's a year away. Reality check: it's less than 7 weeks now. We have been spoiled with amazing weather (sometimes rainy, but still better than snow!), and this morning was the first that actually made me realize how close it really is! (frost on the car, crisp air, seeing our breath, etc). Soon, we will be knee deep in snow (and I will be dreaming about being "knee deep in the water somewhere" as per Zac Brown Band), and elbow deep in wrapping presents! Yesterday I panicked. Being that I order ALL things online generally , to avoid PEOPLE and lines at the store, I like to give myself enough time to ensure that things even ordered from Zulily arrive in plenty of time. So I did it. I hammered out both kids lists--ALL DONE Keira and Garett. I only have one thing left to buy for my niece/nephew (Tyler does the shopping for his side since there's more people to buy for there), and I got all of the teachers/ECE's done...

Last week went by at a snails pace. I was off on Friday, and so was Tyler, so we took advantage of the day by cleaning a bit, putting away endless laundry, taking naps and baths and did some shopping. I also placed Garett's school picture order--I am excited to see them once they come in! :) I had some pictures developed on Thursday for the Remembrance Day slideshow, and sent them to school on Friday with Garett. I got ready for the evening, and while Tyler did some work in the basement, I went and picked up both kids, and Tyler cooked a quick dinner for them and the babysitters. We headed out around 5:15 for the EY center. We had tickets to VIP unlimited tasting alley and carnivore package at the Wine and Food festival. The VIP tasting alley was a separate room, where there were canapés and unlimited wine for two hours. It was a lot. We left that area after maybe an hour and a half and walked around the tasting floor in the main event. We won a tshirt and a beer glass, and ran...

My Blogger App on my phone isn't compatible with my ioS11 update, and now I can't even do photodump posts that I really need to do! Oh well...first world problems, right? So for now, all you get is words, until I figure out how to get pictures back up and running :) Friday was a hectic day. After work, I ran to grab Garett at school. When I got home, my dad was already there, with Tyler and Keira. We were running short on time, so we ordered in from Tony's up the road. My MIL and FIL showed up, as did the twins (our sitters) to watch keira while the rest of us headed out. Originally, Tyler was supposed to come to the Halloween party at G's school for the first hour, but the band he was sitting in with at LIVE! on Elgin, told him there was a designated load in time, being that it was downtown. So, off he went right as we were leaving for the party. He didn't miss much though. There were some tables set up in the hall as raffles to win a cake (a bunch of people ma...

Friday after I left work, I went right home and relaxed for a few minutes before the kids and Tyler got home. Tyler made us some nice Filet Mignons in the cast Iron pans, and I made some loaded baked potatoes, caramelized onions, mushrooms and  some asparagus wrapped in fresh from the butcher genoa salami. YUM. Afterwards, we relaxed a bit and put the kids to bed. Ty played in Cornwall for two hours, so he left around 8:30 or something and was home around 2:45.  I only woke up long enough to see he was home and went back to sleep. I got hardly any sleep that night, so I was trying to take in what little sleep we were both going to get. Saturday morning the kids slept until 6:30, so I took them downstairs and fed them breakfast and we played while Tyler slept until 9. Once he was up, we loaded everyone into the car and headed to the rink for Garett's CanSkate. It was a little chilly in the arena that day, so Tyler took Keira for a ride to Tim Hortons to get hot chocolates, ...

It was a "busy" lazy weekend. Friday at work, my boss (who was acting for my higher up boss), told us we could go home an hour earlier than we usually finish. But then around 2:30, we all decided to head over to tower D (the bar), and celebrate an early thanksgiving weekend. I had a few drinks, and stayed until 7:30, when I ubered home. We had a pretty quiet night after that. The kids were in bed when I got there, and I was asleep by 9:30. Saturday we woke up and made the kids breakfast, and we played until we had to head to Cornwall for my family meal. We played and ate and visited until about 4:45, and headed home. We put the kids to bed and ordered in some Wild Wing for a bed picnic and watched Super Troopers. We were in bed by 9:30 again haha Sunday we woke up and made a big breakfast, and I went out to the store (which was a ghost town) to grab some fresh fruit and veggies for lunches this week, and then cooked turnips all day so we could have a big casserole dish o...

Hello, hello, everyone! Time is not exactly on my side these last few weeks, so I don't feel like I'm just falling behind in blogging, but also in life! I just want to take a minute to SLOW DOWN. I'll break it down into updates on each person in my little clan, or it'll just sound all over the place! Garett: -He adjusted very well to school. He has made lots of new friends, enjoys going, and loves before and after school programs as well, so he can "hang with his bros" he says.......4.5 going on 10, I swear. -Since he graduated from the Sea Otter Level in swimming, he has started "Salamander" level. He's three lessons into this level, and will graduate come December 20th. He is still loving swimming! He very much looks forward to Weds nights. At this rate, in the accelerated classes, he will be just about life guard level trained by the time he is 7, lol -He started CanSkate last Saturday. He discovered a girl from his class...

Shannon's update to her 31 list inspired be to get back to it with my birthday coming up next Monday. I didn't make a 31 before 31 list because it was a busy year, but here are some notable things we accomplished this year that I checked off of my mental list. I had such a fun year being off, and I didn't want it to end :( But I will look forward and make a list for 32 things before I'm 32! I'll put some thought into it though, so it's attainable stuff (realistically things are super hard to get done now haha) Here goes nothing for my 31st year! -Hosted a wine and cheese pairing party. Great success! I made different breads and oil dips, nuts, chocolates, cheeses, crackers, and a ton of different types of wine, and wrote out the pairings for everyone. (October 16, 2016) -First Halloween as a family of 4. Keira was Snow White and Garett was Dracula. We had some family/friends over so the kids could trick or treat together, and the girls stayed behind to han...

Our timing with the kids worked out pretty well. With one starting school next week, I took a bit of extra time off to ease into all the transitions; as Keira takes over Garett's spot in daycare. So tomorrow is the big day for her. We will see how she does, and try and get her into a good routine there, where she naps a bit later in the day to align mealtimes and naps with the other little s. Being close for two weeks while the kids both get used to their new surroundings takes a lot of panic off of my mind; being able to pick up and go at anytime. I have a bit of an empty nester feeling though! Lol Anyways, Keira's list for daycare was more like packing her for an overnight trip, but stuff that wasn't going to come back constantly , so I had to purchase extra stuff. Here's what I sent : -the playroom is in the basement , and gets cool on the kids feet , so we always keep her stocked with slippers. I doubt Keira will keep hers on , but we are sending  these cute bun...

Well, next week it begins. I have all the T's crossed and the i's dotted, and we are ready, aside from lunch groceries. The kindergarten wishlist only consisted of a few things: -a yoga mat for the quiet time. The one I bought is now somehow $12, so if you're looking for a good one, I highly recommend  THIS ONE -they also asked for a box of Kleenex, so I bought two jumbo packs of 8 boxes each of Kleenex. I know my kid alone will go through half of that, lol -one pack of markers. I made Garett up his own pencil cases of stuff, and am sending ten packs of different crayola markers (fine tip, regular , washable, different size of packs with different colonies , etc) -3x large glue sticks. I bought them 4 packs of three large elmers glue sticks, because : glue and kindergarteners. -a box of large ziplock bags. I bought two club packs of three boxes each. I'm not sure what they use them for, but ziplock bags are handy! - large backpack for the child. Garett'...

-Garett went on his first friend play date ever , and he had so much fun. It was his two best friends that left daycare to start school last year. -happy that while Garett was at his play date, Tyler was home with Keira and I went out for a bit alone, then came home and we finished The Belko Experiment movie before I went to get him. (He was there for two hours) -sad that this week, Garett only has four days left at daycare :( Friday is Keira's first day, while I keep g home with me. Can't believe it's already almost school time!! -as a "goodbye" gift from g, we bought his daycare provider a necklace from peoples that is a heart with some Garnet stones in it (Garett's birthstone), to remember him by, and I ordered an Aukey essential oils diffuser , a doTERRA starter kit and an essential oils mixing guide recipe book thing. Hopefully she likes it. -Keira adapted SO well to putting herself down for her nap. She's down to one a day, and I just give...

On Wednesday, we had a photographer coming at noon for a cake smash photo shoot. So that morning, we dropped off her birthday party and photo shoot balloons at party city, bought a few last min things for Sunday (platters, bowls , serving spoons, etc) Little miss found two pens that she thought were pretty spectacular lol When we got home, she had her nap, got up, and the photographer came about 30 mins early since she was already nearby, so timing worked out well!  I didn't snap many pictures because little girl would NOT stay on the backdrop lol. So it will be a few more days before I get the touched up pictures , and I'm excited to see what she managed to get.  Keira loves her picture being taken , but doesn't so much love cake, or smashing them. She daintily would touch the icing and lick it , so I had to do like I did to her brother and show her how to smash it. She was taken with the painters tape we used to put up the background, so I bal...