Taking care of YOU!

Now that you are a mom it is still important to take care of YOU! I know its hard with a family and a house to take care of but taking care of yourself will make you a better mom/wife/friend and so on.

Here is a list of things I do that make me happy...

1. Exercise - 3 days a week for 30 mins (even if its just going for a walk)
2. Spend time with friends - It is so important to have some adult interaction
3. Buy something for yourself - We get so caught up in buying things for our kids and feel guilty spending money on us
4. Get a massage - Nothing beats an hour of quiet relaxation time
5. Read a good book
6. Do something that makes you feel pretty - Get your hair done, put on some make up, get dressed up
7. Listen to happy/relaxing music - Somethimes before bed I like to listen to music to help me sleep

What do you do that makes you feel good??

Back to school shopping!

*sings* "It's the most wonderful time of the year" We all know this commercial and I guess all the Back to School commercials once again apply to me but in a different way. In fact its not wonderful at all, its sad! okay maybe not sad but it sure is bittersweet. I can't believe my baby boy is 4 and ready for school!! Time sure does fly by. But with that being said we are super excited for him. I know he is going to LOVE it! We bought his backpack and lunch bag a couple weeks ago and my eyes were tearing up as I watched him walk through the store wearing that backpack and holding his lunch bag like such a big boy!  

Today we took Blake shopping for some new clothes.  When I was a kid I loved going back to school shopping and we had so much fun doing it with Blake. We bought him a jacket, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 hoody sweaters and 3 pairs of jeans. Everything we have bought so far cost us around $120. All we need now are some indoor shoes. I can't imagine how much it will all cost us when he starts grade school and will actually need school supplies.

I will update again in two weeks when we go and meet his teacher, visit the classroom and find his cubby hole. Then again on September 13, 2011 after I walk my little man to school for the first time with tears in my eyes. We love him SO much!

Easy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here is my recipe for banana muffins that I make all the time!! You can make regular size or mini muffins just adjust the bake time.

3 or 4 Banana's (mashed)

1/2 cup Sugar

1 Egg

1/3 cup melted Butter

1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 package of Milk Chocolate
Chips (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl and mix all the dry in another.
• Add the dry mixture to the wet
• Add chocolate chips
• Bake for 15-20mins (I usually only keep them in for 15mins max)

Enjoy!!!

Cake Smash Pictures!!!

A few months back I heard about an awesome idea called a Cake Smash Photo Shoot! Although it kind of seems self explanatory, for some reason people are still like "what the heck is that?" Well....for your child's first birthday pictures you set them in front of a cake and let them smash it!! It makes for VERY cute pictures and I knew this is what I wanted to do. So, here is a peek at what it looked like!! I can't show too much since I will be displaying these pictures at her party and don't want to ruin the surprise!!! :) Enjoy!

Although it looks like she is having fun...she cried about 80% of the time. She just HATED the feeling of icing on her feet, legs and hands!! She wouldn't even try the cake so I had to force her to eat some!! Great mom right?? lol BUT then she seemed to like it and ate some herself.... followed by more crying after she realized that she is still covered in this pink stuff! Ahhhh the things we do to our children!!! ha ha but Michelle (the photographer) did such an amazing job and was very patient even though she had one tough customer hehe!

Travelling with two small kids

WOW! It has been a long time since I was on here...oops!! Well we just got back from our very long trip and I thought I would let you all (I so badly want to write y'all but who am I kidding, I can't pull that off LOL) know how it went. We headed 17 hours East to visit my dad and step mom and we were driving since I have a slight (again who am I kidding an EXTREME) fear of flying. The drive was going well until Blake asked "are we there yet" (at this point I was asking myself if it was okay to drug your children to make them sleep...jk of course!) and it had only been about 45mins! And don't let that picture deceive you, it took him 6.5 hours to actually fall asleep lol! Chelsea would sleep for the first few hours then she would be awake the rest of the drive and the only thing that would keep her from crying was holding my hand. Now just picture bending your arm in a weird way to the back seat and around a car seat that is rear facing ....for 5 hours!!! Ouch my arm was killing me! We stopped half way which landed us in Quebec where folks don't like to speak English...great! Our hotel room smelt like BO but at this point it was midnight and we were tired!!

The next morning we got up at 6:30am had some breakfast that the hotel offered and we were off. I REALLY wanted a Tim Horton's coffee but then I quickly remembered that "Oh ya they probably wont speak English" and from my experience last year with McDonald's and a cashier that could not speak or understand English...it's not fun. I drove first because again, I knew Chelsea would sleep the first few hours then need my hand. So we left the hotel at 7:30am and we arrived at 4:00pm (But really it was only 3:00pm "our" time...darn time change) we got changed and we off to my cousins wedding! And that was the quick and dirty version of what it was like travelling with two small kids :) Oh and I left out that we did make gas stops which only took us a quick 40 mins each time haha but I guess we had to let the kids stretch, go to the bathroom and get some food :) But the trip was all worth it!! We had a blast :)

Basement Reno

We have not had use of our basement since my brother in law moved in with us (to go to school) almost two years ago. This past weekend he moved out and we are excited to finally be able to do something fun with this space. We have decided to make the basement a family/playroom and also have it be a place where guests can sleep when they come for a visit. So here is our plan and check list and I will keep you updated as things get done :)

• Prime the walls
• Paint
• Replace the carpet
• Buy a new couch/sofa bed
• Decorate
• Bring on the toys! :)

Breastfeeding, Teething, & Weaning

Today has been one trying day! Chelsea is cutting 2 bottom teeth and has been very cranky these past few days. Putting her in her own bed at night has gone out the window (thanks to teething) All she does is scream her head off until we take her out and even then she still cries. I'm still getting clogged milk ducts, in fact I have one right now but that was my fault since I went too long between feedings on that side. I am Tired! Just so tired! and I know I've said this many many times but I am starting the weaning process again!

I have such a problem with making a plan and sticking to it but my plan this time around is to only pump during the day and offer the bottle. I have a feeling that part of the reason she wont take a bottle is because she is not hungry. Unlike most 9 months olds, Chelsea is drinking all night long (thanks to bed sharing) and she probably gets all the milk she needs at night. During the day she is not too interested in nursing any more anyway. I feel like most of the time I'm "forcing" her to nurse and she just ends up sucking a couple of time then pulls off. The only bad thing about pumping is that I feel like my pump doesn't fully empty me out. I can feel my breasts getting full after just 2 hours but I am hoping this might help reduce my milk supply. This is going to be such a challenge but if I truly want to wean I need to stick to it! I'm tired of feeling so unhappy all the time, I'm tired of being stressed out. I only have a couple of months left before I go back to work and I want to enjoy this time with my kids and not have to worry about my breastfeeding issues anymore! Okay that's all for today! Thanks for listening to my venting! UGH!

Breastfeeding Update

I never thought that we would make it this far but here we are 9 months in and still breastfeeding. This has been one tough journey. I knew that breastfeeding wouldn't be easy but I thought that was only for the first few weeks. I on the other hand struggled for the first 8 weeks then things were great! Breastfeeding was amazingly easy and I loved it. Then, at 4 month in, I got my first blocked milk duct and they kept recurring after that. I have probably had 10 or more.

My original goal was to BF for 6 months but when we got to 6 months Chelsea was WAY too attached and would not take a bottle. We tried to wean a few times but having a baby that will not take a bottle makes it very difficult and we would give up every time. Every time I get a new blocked milk duct I break down and cry and say I'm DONE!!! but how can I be done when Chelsea wont drink from anything but me? I feel so alone! I feel like the only person going through this and I have no support. It's funny because in the beginning I fought SO hard to increase my milk supply to get Chelsea to be OFF the bottle and now here I am wishing I could go back in time and do it all over again. If I knew then what I know now, I honestly would have stopped BF back then. Breastfeeding has now become a negative thing for me and I never really loved it in the first place. I don't feel the wonderful bond it brings because all I can do is worry. "I wonder when I will get another blocked milk duct" "I wonder how long it will last" "I wonder if it will become worse" "I wonder if there is something else going on" "why is it only happening on my one breast"...those are just some of the things that constantly run through my head.

So here I am with another blocked milk duct and taking antibiotics for possible Thrush but nobody really knows if that's what I have. It's frustrating not having answers. I have some symptoms for Thrush, Blocked milk duct and Mastitis but no idea what one it could be (if any). It has been a week now since I started feeling the pain and I really hope it goes away soon! As soon as this is gone I will be starting the weaning process again by taking away the "dinner time" feeding. Chelsea now drinks every 4 hours and all night long, so my goal is to only be nursing at night and then hopefully cutting that out too by the time I got back to work. Wish me luck! I need it.

Easter Picture Frames

A few weeks ago we had the kids pictures taken for Easter and I thought it would be fun to make picture frames for their grandparents to display them in. We made a trip to the dollar store and bought everything you see here (minus the hot glue gun) and we purchased the frames from the dollar store as well. So this project was very inexpensive and very fun.

Blake picked what and where he wanted things to go and I put the glue in place. They turned out so cute that I wish I would have got him to make one for me :)

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last week I finally decided to make oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies! I heard about this recipe a while back and never got around to making them. Then, a few weeks later I saw a video on YouTube on how to make them and that is when I decided to give it a try!

The cookies were a big hit!!! They were easy to make and they were huge so I only made a few!!! But my family loved them! So Thank you to Sierra for posting that video! :)

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 package Oreo cookies -- I used Double Stuf
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to the wet mixture and combine thoroughly. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for 15 minutes to make it easier to work with and to keep the dough from spreading when baking.

Using a cookie scoop place one scoop of dough on top of an Oreo cookie. Place another single scoop on the bottom of the Oreo to create a cookie sandwich. Seal the edges together to completely close in the Oreo.

Place the balls of cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 9-13 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Bunny Pictures!

Went to a friends house to get the kids pictures taken with real live bunnies!!

Chelsea wasn't sure at first and would not crack a smile at all.

Blake did amazing! I love my handsome little man :)

Chelsea finally warmed up and gave us a big smile. Blake was a big help acting silly trying to make her laugh. and mommy might have also had to sing and dance too ;)

The photo shoot turned out so well. I love all the pictures and I have printed them all already! Also, Blake and I made a special project with the pictures to send off to the grandparents. I will post pictures of what we made as soon as I send them in the mail and know that the grandparents received them.

Package Exchange

Over the past year I have "met" some amazing mommies on YouTube!!! I watch their video's all the time and it's not only mommies I watch but lots of other wonderful girls that are trying to conceive/adopt. It gets very lonely staying at home all the time and this has been a great way to connect with other mommies that relate to me. I have learned so much from these ladies and it has given me a place to talk about all things baby (without boring people in my real life that may not be in the same place as me right now)

But the real reason for this blog post is to talk about this exciting thing that I am taking part in. One of the girls Kelley has already sent me something a while back and it was amazingly sweet of her! I could not believe that she would do something so sweet for our family! We have since sent something back to her and her sweet baby girl Amanda but now that I was shopping for souvenir type gifts I thought it would be fun to send her some too. Now.... Candace is the one who came up with the idea of wanting to send and receive packages from around the world. She picked a few girls and I was the one from Canada. I have been having SO much fun shopping for Canadian souvenirs and I cannot wait to send this package off! I know this may sound crazy to some of you but I trust these girls and I think it is so much fun! It actually brings me back to my young school days when we had pen pals :) I will be mailing these packages out this week and I will update again as soon as I get my package from Texas!!

Easter Craft for Kids

Wow..It has been a long time since I've been on here....oops :) I never feel like I have anything interesting enough to chat about. But now that Easter is fast approaching I thought it would be fun to start some Easter crafts with Blake. Today we decided to make an Easter Egg Wreath, it was simple to make and we had lots of fun doing it.

1. What you will need:
• brightly coloured paper
• scissors, markers, glue,
• ribbon, paint, stickers
• Egg shaped stencil and a coat hanger
2. Cut out egg shapes with your coloured paper
3. Let the kids decorate the eggs any way they want (It doesn't have to be perfect)
4. Stretch your coat hanger into a circle shape
5. Use a hot glue gun to attach the eggs to the coat hanger
6. Tie some ribbon around the the top of the hanger
7. Hang your Easter Egg Wreath on your door 

And....Ta-da you have a beautiful Eater Egg Wreath! It's Fun, Easy and Inexpensive (since you can make it with things you already have laying around the house) Enjoy!

Washing Cloth Diapers

We have been cloth diapering for 3 months now and one of my biggest challenges has been trying to find a wash routine that works for us. My main issue was that the diapers were not getting clean enough. I found that the diapers would smell really bad when baby went pee, the kind of smell that reminded me of dirty wet towels. I played around with different wash routines, I even stripped the diapers more then a few times thinking the issue may be a build up of some sort. I contacted Rock n Green to see if maybe they could help. I tried using more detergent, I tried using less detergent but nothing seemed to work. Finally, one day I took the time to watch the wash cycle and noticed that the hot water would run out when the water level hit medium (I was using large) and by the time the water made it to a large load the water was cold. So with that being said, this is how I wash our cloth diapers:

1. Cold rinse & spin
2. Hot soak/wash (2-3tbs RnG, our washing machine offers a soak feature before it washes using the same water)
3. Cold rinse & spin
4. Extra cold rinse & spin
5. Tumble dry the inserts for 30 minutes (just to that they are not soaking wet)
6. Hang dry everything on a drying rack

I should also add that we use Rockin' Green detergent and use a medium water level.

After using this method for a few weeks now, I noticed that our diapers have become SO much cleaner but still not 100% clean. The reason I think is due to the fact that we have a very cheap washing machine that doesn't agitate strong enough. If only I could just go out and buy a new one :)

Meal plan Feb 14-20

For this weeks meal plan we decided to really try hard and save money by using what we have. It also helps that 3 nights of the week we wont be home as we are going to my in laws for the long weekend.

• Pork Roast, scallop potatoes, corn and cesar salad
• Chicken Alfredo and garden salad (although we ended up using left over pork and saved our chicken...score!)
• Homemade burgers and chicken wings
• Chili and bread (leftovers from last week)

Next week I might try a different grocery store that is known for having lower prices. I am very curious to see how much of a savings it will be!

Meal plan Feb 7-13

This week we tried to save money by using what we already had and it worked. We ended up spending way less then we usually do!

• Homemade Hamburgers and Salad (they turned out so good last week we had to have them again)
• Chicken Cesar Wraps and fries
• Chili and dinner rolls
• Hot Chicken Sandwiches, fries, green beans and carrots (made from a whole chicken)
• Lemon Chicken breasts, white rice and peas
• The Keg (we have gift cards)
• Steak, potatoes and corn

The only meat we had to buy this week was the whole chicken which was on sale. We also bought/had lots of frozen veggies which will last a few dinners and therefore save us money. Lastly, I am making a huge pot of chili so we will freeze the left overs and have that for at least 2 more suppers.

Double Layer Tutu

I know Chelsea is only 7 months old but I have already started to plan her 1st birthday. I booked an appointment with a local photographer for a cake smash photo shoot (I will talk about that in a later post) and for this shoot she will need a tutu (okay so maybe she wont "need" one...but I really want one haha). I started looking up tutu's online and I found a really great website that makes 1st birthday tutu's, onesies, and diaper covers but the whole package costs over $60 (including shipping) and that is kinda crazy!!! Then I had a thought...I'd like to think I can be crafty so I should make it myself.

Well... finding out how to make a tutu online is pretty easy but trying to find out how to make a double layer tutu..not so easy. Double layer tutu's are ones that have one colour on top and another colour underneath (So cute) I had to have one. I'm sure I can figure it out so I went to the fabric store and bought my supplies. It took me a little longer then I thought to make because it was my first time but I made one and it turned out pretty darn good and it only cost me $11. Now I just need to pick out a birthday shirt so I can match the colours and start making Chelsea's 1st birthday cake smash tutu!! :)

Meal plan Jan 31 - Feb 6

Okay so I am late again posting our meal plan for the week. I tried to come up with meal idea's that would cost the least amount of money since we went out for supper last week and we all know how much that can cost! I also tried to use up things we already had to help save money.

• Ragu chicken, rice, and green beans (from last week since we went out for supper instead)
• Chicken Cesar Wraps and fries
• Spaghetti & Meatballs, garlic bread
• Homemade Burgers, homemade fries
• Slow cooker Pork, rice, carrots
• Roast, potatoes, and corn
• Pizza (not sure if we will do pizza but I just left this one open to anything)

One more thing I thought I should mention...we do not need to buy any beef or chicken. My husbands parents live on a beef Farm so we get our beef from there and a few weeks ago we bought two boxes of chicken (one box of Chicken Breasts and one box of Chicken cut into strips).

First time making homemade baby food

Today I thought I would attempt to make Chelsea some homemade baby food for the first time. It was actually my first time making baby food EVER as we only gave Blake baby jar food (I guess you really do learn a lot the second time around). We decided that we were going to make baby food for Chelsea as soon as we realized just how expensive it is to buy the jar kind. So, let me break down the cost... one jar of sweet potatoes is about .79 cents and that would be for about 2-3 meals. One large sweet potato in the grocery store was $2.14 and made about 25 cubes. This come out to...Jar food .26 cents per meal and homemade .08 cents per meal, how awesome is that?

Now let me tell you how it went, not good. haha. First I made sweet potatoes, which I didn't realize how hard it is to cut that darn thing. I don't own a real steamer so I just used a strainer over a pot, which worked okay. Next I put the potato chunks into my blender as I also don't own a food processor. I turned the blender on and Nothing! The potatoes didn't move! Maybe I just needed to add water because that seemed to get things moving (a little). I put my mixture into 2 ice cube trays and YAY I did it but wait why is the colour of my strainer now faded off?? UGH...is it possible that the colour faded/dripped/melted into the pot of water that I used to thin out the baby food? Better safe then sorry...in the garbage my baby food goes!

I decided to try again but this time I would make something that didn't require a steamer or food processor so I made Banana Applesauce Mush . This was so easy to make and tasted SO good! Chelsea loved it and she rarely likes anything!! The only thing is one apple and one banana only made 7 cubes (probably 8 if I didn't give Chelsea any first). But I would call this one a success!

My next adventure in making baby food will be with pears and more sweet potatoes...but first I shall invest in a steamer, food processor (I forgot to mention my blender died haha), and a small strainer!

How we came to Cloth Diaper

Not a lot of people know this about our family but we are cloth diapering our daughter Chelsea. I first started thinking about the idea of cloth diapering when I was pregnant but when I brought this up to Lee he said no way and I left it at that. I decided to revisit the idea when Chelsea was about 3 month old after watching a large number of videos on YouTube, they made it look so fun and easy. So.. for the second time I brought the idea up to Lee and again without thinking he said no way! After LOTS of convincing he agreed to let me buy one cloth diaper and give that a try.

I put this one cloth diaper on her and quickly realized that I liked it but I was going to need more then one to really get a feel for what it's like. I then looked online and found a private seller of brand new Bum Genius diapers for a great price, I bought 6, now I was ready to give cloth a try! I loved it right away and immediately wanted to buy more. People warned me that cloth diapering was addictive and this was the moment I knew why. Next I ordered a brand new FuzziBunz diaper and a pail liner and only 2 days later (thanks to black Friday sales) I ordered 6 more FuzziBunz diapers. I was very determined not to pay full price for cloth diapers as they are VERY expensive and I was already on the fence about it really saving us money so out of a stash of 21 diapers; 16 were sale prices, 3 were full price, and 2 were free.

To sum things up, It has now been almost 3 months since we started cloth diapering and we love it. Even Lee, who was one hundred percent against it, has since said to me "you were right".

Here are a few of the reasons why we love it:

1. We will save tons of money
2. Cloth diapers are as easy to use as disposables
3. Less waste to landfills
4. No diaper rash
5. They come in cute colours/patterns
6. No leaks!

Feel free to ask me questions!!! More cloth diaper blogs to come!

Meal planning

Okay so this is a little late but we had some pretty yummy meals this past week....

• Chicken fried rice and salad
• Hot dogs and fries (we needed something quick and easy)
• Meatball subs and salad
• Slow cooker chicken, white rice and green beans
• Lasagna and garlic bread
• Homemade Swiss Chalet
• Chicken Quesadillas and nachos

After watching so many amazing YouTube mommy's that meal plan, I got inspired! I have been meal planning now for over 6 months and it has helped out so much with saving time and money. It has made grocery shopping quick and easy, as we used to be the family that would walk around the grocery store wasting time trying to think of supper ideas for the week while just throwing things in our cart. So now I'm excited to share my meal planning with you :) Thanks Jeni (CandidMommy) for the idea!

Welcome!!

Hi Everyone!!!

This is my first blog post ever! I want to start off by saying I am not the best writer but I love writing in journals (even though every time I start a journal I never keep it up) So, I really hope that I can keep this updated!

I will be blogging about everything that happens in mommyhood such as; raising a baby and a toddler, breastfeeding, meal planning, traveling with kids (we are planning on going on a 17 hour drive this summer), going back to work full time, daycare....and so on!

I hope you enjoy!!!

Shannon