Happy Birthday Jack!

Today my nephew Jackson was born. He was born at 11:35am in Ottawa. He weighed 8lbs 10z and was healthy and amazing. The new Mom, Dad and Jack are all doing well, though they are all very tired.

 

He is the cutest, most perfect and innocent creature in the world and I love him with all my heart and soul.

I will be posting photos of him once I get the go ahead from my brother and sister-in-law, aka the new parents. I don’t want to post anything until they have said it is okay – don’t want to steal their moments, blah blah blah. I will post more when I have a bit more time to sit down and tell what I know of his story so far, but I couldn’t let this monumental day go un-blogged.

Seriously --- so cute --- so loved.

I’m Back!!!

I know it has been a while, but I am back now. I am spending most of the rest of this afternoon sitting by an open window, enjoying the fresh air, my backyard garden and the sunlight while I blog away. In other words, there should be regular posts for the next month or so despite how busy I will likely be.

 

What have I been busy with you ask? Well for those of you who don’t already know, Dave and I have been advancing our lives a fair bit lately. We are obviously planning our wedding which is very time consuming despite the fact that we are planning a wedding that is well over a year away. We have also signed up at Goodlife gym and gotten ourselves personal trainers (to learn more about this, check out my health blog, The Road to a Better Me – it too is getting updated today). We also made one of the biggest purchases we will ever make…we bought a house. I will create more specific posts about each of these things later, but for now I think this is enough to understand just how busy our personal lives have been lately. Oh, and I am also planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law with my mom which has taken a little bit of work as well (invitations, ideas, gift shopping, etc), though to be honest, this one wasn’t as much work as the others. In fact it was quite fun to send out invitations and look at baby things.

It’s a Boy

Lynn and Tyler were told today that Baby Beach is a BOY!! I am going to have a nephew and I am super excited!

Apparently the ultrasound technician said she was 99.9% sure that the baby was a boy. Thankfully Tyler and Lynn included me in the phone calls that followed their appointment.

Seriously, I am one happy Aunt who is about to buy a great deal of blue things including baby photography props!!

My Family’s Big News

On top of my and Dave’s engagement, my brother and sister-in-law had their own big news to share with our family this past holiday season. They are going to be parents. They shared this with my parents and I through Christmas cards for Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt. I absolutely loved it and am so incredibly excited for my niece or nephew (they will be finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl when the 5 month marker comes around). I can’t wait to spoil the baby with toys and clothes and shower it with love and of course take lots of photos.

How to Wrap a Baby Gift

At the end of the month my childhood best friend Madison will be having her first child, a little baby boy. She had two baby showers, neither of which I could attend so instead, I mailed their present to them via Canada Post. But first, I had to wrap the adorable little clothes. My mom and I have a tradition when it comes to wrapping baby gifts and I have decided to share it.
Step 1: Purchase adorable little clothing, toys and/or baby necessities AND a baby's receiving blanket and diaper pins.
Step 2: Fold the clothing and arrange items in the middle of the receiving blanket (you may have to fold the blanket to make it a more manageable size). Step 3: Fold in corners of the blanket and secure with diaper pins.
Step 4: Finish folding in all the corners of the blanket and securing with pins until the package is all wrapped up!This is easier to do with items in boxes or individual items, rather than groups of items like here. I think this is a really cute way to present baby gifts - it also gives the mother another blanket which, from what I understand, you can never have enough of. It also happens to be a green alternative to wrapping paper, though my mom and I have been doing this for as long as I can remember, which happens to be before green was cool.

Like a Pregnant Woman

Lately I have been eating more than my fair share of salt and vinegar chips, Miss Vickie's and/or Lays are my preferred brands. The thing that makes this post-able material (as No One Cares What I Had for Lunch) is that I eat them with grapes, red grapes to be more precise. They are yummy and delicious and definitely seem like food a pregnant woman would crave. It got me thinking and I have decided to start a list of the crazy combinations of food that I eat on occasion that make me seem like a pregnant woman. I am sure to miss some, as I usually don't think twice about them, but surely the main odd-balls will get included.

• salt and vinegar chips with grapes (this is also really good with a big glass of orange juice);
• Dairy Queen strawberry blizzard with Dairy Queen french fries;
• cucumbers with shredded chicken (mixed with a little butter to make it stick together - kind of like mayo I guess);
• apples and peanut butter;
• carrot and lettuce sandwiches (on white bread, with butter/margarine);
• sweet gherkin pickles (this isn't a combination I know, but I am told that it is a pregnant woman craving);
• tuna and pickles (no mayo);
• anything with chocolate (all hail the creator of the chocolate fountain); and
• home-made chinese fried rice. Included in the sauce is soy sauce, plum sauce and tomato sauce and/or ketchup.

In my mind, I am not the only non-pregnant person who eats odd combinations of food. Please confirm this by commenting on the crazy combinations of food you eat, I know you have at least one.