2010 Christmas Card

Christmas is officially less than one week away! Procrastination was a strong characteristic for me this festive season, so I am not exactly ready, so I better get my butt into high gear this week!

Last week however, I did manage to find sometime to complete our Christmas card (YAY), too bad I didn't leave enough time to mail them (Boo lol)... but I got creative and used social media to my advantage, and sent them out via Facebook and email (YAY me!).

We are staying local this Christmas. Christmas eve will be spent at my parents house with family, Christmas morning will be at our place, and then back over to my parents house for a big family dinner! :) I am looking forward to spending time with family and enjoying some much needed time off!

Loralai at 2.5 years old update

So Loralai is officially 2.5 years old, and man oh man over the last week she has definitely filled the stereotype of the terrible two's. Whining, screeching, not listening, temper tantrums.... she had been so great, when she just started to really understand and I could reason with her, the two's kicked in with vengeance.

Of course the above is just a Mommy frustration vent... there has been so many fun and proud moments for this Mommy lately as well, more so then those frustrating moments, but sometimes after a long day of frustration, it is hard to remember the good ones, even though the good outweigh the bad 5-1! Just look at this smile...

Loralai Fun Facts:

• Size 8 shoe
• 3T clothes (big in the waist but her legs and torso are so long)
  
• Knows all her simple shapes
• Finally knows her colours
• Her favourite toy(s) are still her two very special babies that she takes to bed with her every night.

So this past week has been eventful to say the least. Last Friday night we went to Todd's Gala (Christmas Party), Todd was the DJ so I brought our friend Jeff along as my date. We we were literrally around the corner from the hall and someone side swiped my truck, we were all going fairly slow so it cause very minimal damage to both vehicles, but it was still a heck of a way to begin the evening. Then while we were just about to sit down for dinner, Todd called me up to the front and let me know that my mom had called and said Loralai was throwing up :( So we decided to eat dinner since it was about to be served, and then call back to see how she was doing. Loralai was sleeping when we called back, so I enjoyed the evening as much as I could considering my mind was with Loralai an hour a way, but it was fun night!




Then on Tuesday I got the same flu as Loralai had on that Friday, then on Thursday when I was finally feeling a little better the carbon monoxide detector went off, so I called the fire department and they sent over a truck to check it out. They got a reading, and called the gas company to come for further inspection. I had a dentist appointment booked for that morning, so my parents came over and waited for the gas company for me. It turned out that it was a false alarm, but we did find out that we should be keeping our pipes clear of snow, they should let you know this when you buy a house! Thank goodness for alarms!

So I think that we had enough interesting days for the past week, so I am hoping that the next week leading up to Christmas is fairly uneventful...well we can only hope ;)

Message from Santa

Here is the link to Santa's video message to Loralai! :)

Our Christmas Video

This is our funny Christmas video! It takes a minute to upload...enjoy :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2010 Status

So as I was reading my many daily blogs that I follow, one of them had a post about an application that Facebook has called My Year in Status, and I knew I had to have one too!

Since our lives now are made up of social networks, we might as well embrace it! I am happy that the majority of my status changes are positive in nature, but I am going to try and make a New Year resolution and ensure that 2011 99% of them are positive. Positive thinking lead to positive outcomes!

Our Adventures!

So I have been a bad blogger lately, and well also a bad picture taker too! But regardless of the lack of photos and blogging, we have been up to some fun and interesting activities lately!

First: last week the Christmas train came through Midhurst and we were there! The train stops in cities and towns all over for donations to local food banks. It would have been a lot more fun had the train rolled through in the evening since it adorns lots of lights, but nevertheless Loralai loved seeing the train. She kept saying "I go on the train?", poor thing was a little disappointed that she was not able to ride on it.

There was a little concert that was put on; I do have to admit they could have used a more kid friendly band, and the Santa was a tad quirky, but no one seemed to mind too much.

This is by far my favourite picture in a while, even with the 'I want to watch the train, hurry up and take the picture Mommy' look Loralai is giving me! :)


Second: So I found a recipe to make home made ornaments and got super excited! I ran out and bought some Christmas cookie cutters that night, and the next morning Loralai and I mixed together the dough (flour, salt, and water), and cut out the shapes. I then put them into the oven for 2 hours so that they could harden. That afternoon I got the paint (lol I should have gotten more traditional Christmas colours), and we sat down together to paint. Well below is the only picture that she was actually cooperating and painting the ornaments, instead of trying to eat them! She kept saying :I eat the cookies?" I would have to explain that they were actually ornaments. I even got her a regular cookie thinking that maybe she would stop and just enjoy painting, but nope! I actually had to put the ornaments we made away, and we just painted on paper together instead! lol...well it is still a great activity but obviously a little too soon for Loralai to do, so I will try again next year!

Third: So in our area there has been a really bad snow storm circulating, and up until this morning it had seemed to get all around but fortunately miss us...well that was until this morning when we woke up to this:

So after finding out that I did not have to go to work for the 3rd day in a row (yay lol) because the Base had been shut down, and Daddy shoveling the drive way which took him close to 3 hours. we decided that we needed some Christmas spirit to lift our drowning in snow funk, so we went out and got our Christmas tree!

So although we do like going to the tree farm to participate in all the activities they have, the trees are expensive and out of our price range, so we went to a local nursery to look for a tree instead. In the end we actually went to Rona and purchased our tree since the price was better for the size of tree we wanted, but Loralai had a ball running around in all the trees at the nursery!


So the snow has hardly stopped all day today, so we headed back out there and shoveled once again. Loralai was helping us shovel until she noticed her Dora umbrella! I wish that I could have had an umbrella held over my head to keep the snow from getting me all cold and wet! What a smart cookie I have! :)

New additions to our home!

I am excited about these next few items that we brought into our house over the last week that I wanted to share them with you!

First is Loralai's new bed and vanity!

We have to give a special thanks to my cousin Lissa for very kindly handing down her daughter's bed and vanity to Loralai! Loralai absolutely loves the vanity and the bed is just perfect! I am going to add a couple of hooks on the wall and get her some play clothes and jewelry. Finally she has a real bed as opposed to just a mattress on the floor! It makes a huge difference for Mommy and Daddy trying to get out of her bed quietly every night after we put her to bed (I know we are bad laying down with her until she falls asleep!). The vanity (since it has seen it's way through two small cousins) might need a little TLC eventually with a sanding and some paint, but the fact that Loralai is only 2 and still a little hard on things, the vanity is perfect just as is!

This addition is my new best friend! I love my new Blackberry Torch :)

I really thought about getting the Iphone 4, but honestly I loved my last Blackberry, and was not sure if I could really let go of my BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and the keyboard, so I knew that the Torch was the only way to go for me! :)

Happy Halloween!

What does a skelton order at a resturant? Spare ribs

What happened to the guy who didn't pay his exorcist? He was repossessed

What does Tweety Bird say on Halloween? Twick or Tweet

(hehe)
__________________________________________________________________________

We had such a fun Halloween! We painted the pumpkins in the morning and trick or treated around the neighbourhood that night! Loralai was too shy to actually say trick or treat at anyone's door (even though we practiced and she became so good at saying it), so Mommy took that task and Loralai just casually stuck out her bag lol. We probably went to about 15 houses in total and most of them were to people we know on our street or on Grandma and Papa's street. So Loralai probably got about a half a bag full of candy, and believe me that is more then plenty for a 2 year old (and her parents that seem to be gravitated to the bag as well)!

In the first picture we have the Daddy, Mommy, and Baby pumpkins. The Daddy pumpkin is the one we actually grew in our backyard! How great did it turn out? We are proud :)

I am not really into carving the pumpkins, maybe because it just seems to be time consuming and is super messy. Plus although Loralai can participate, most of the carving tasks need to be completed by an adult, so at least with painting she can go to creative town, plus she just thought that painting a pumpkin was the best thing!! In the last picture I asked her what she was painting and she made this scary face lol.

Is this not the cutest duck you have ever seen? We think so :)

Florida Vacation.

So we are back from Florida and we had a great time! The weather was so beautiful the entire week, so when it started to SNOW for the first time this fall/winter season here at home, it made me long to go back and bask in the sunshine!

For this post I wanted to try writing from a different perceptive rather then just my own; my fellow blog Mommy Jenny from Belly Diaries sometimes blogs from the perspective of her son Preston, who happens to be exactly 2 days older then Loralai, and it is such a fun little read! So thank you Jenny for the inspiration :)

Please note that this post will be rather long.

So here is our Florida vacation from Loralai's perspective:

Vacation Bound!

Loralai, Grandma Brenda (my mom), and I are going to Florida this week! Loralai is going to meet her Grandma Maggie (hubby's mom) for the 2nd time since she was 8 months old. We will update and upload pictures when we get back :)

Have a great week everyone!

Pumpkin Patch!!

This is the picture of the cute little guest we had show up in the backyard! I was out there taking photo's of my business items on the deck, and I kept hearing a "meow" that sounded awfully close, so I went inside and this little cutie came up from under the deck.


Anyway now onto the pumpkin patch...

So I decided that after Loralai has said "pumpkin, I want a pumpkin" every time that we drive by any house that has a pumpkin on the porch, that it might be time to take a trip to the pumpkin patch!

So we packed up and Loralai, Ian, Carrie, and I headed to Chappell Farms! The two kiddies had a blast running around and exploring. Because we went midweek it was not busy, there was just a couple of daycare groups that came and for the most part all the kids were around the same age as Loralai and Ian, so they did not feel intimated at all so it was great!

So went we went into the pumpkin patch itself and Loralai searched and finally picked out the pumpkin she wanted, but after holding it for 30 seconds...all she could say was "too heavy", and now every time that she sees her pumpkin she says "too heavy" she cracks me up!

Niagara Falls Getaway!

Loralai and I were suppose to meet up with Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Bonnie last Thursday in Niagara Falls, but on Wednesday I was sitting at home and thought why not book a room and leave a day early. So on the internet I went and booked a room at the Americana Waterpark Hotel; I thought this would be great, the waterpark would give Loralai something to do, and since I desperately needed the mini vacation it would be fun for me as well!

So I packed up everything, picked up Loralai from Carrie's (her sitter/godmother) and started on our 2 hour drive, just me and my two year old! So I did not know what to expect since I have not taken Loralai away by myself before, but she was so great! Although Daddy was missed dearly and spoken about a lot.

So when we arrived at the hotel we unpacked in the room (which was huge and beautiful), and headed to check out the waterpark, but when we got to the doors and they were locked! We headed to the front desk and they advised us that the waterpark was closed on Tuesday's and Wednesday's, but that it did open up again on the Thursday at 2pm...excuse me WHAT?!! So Loralai and I went back to the room, where Mommy turned on Dora and then proceeded to cry for about 10 minutes. I was so disappointed. But then I decided that we could work with this, and that our trip plan would just have to take place in reverse. So we went over to Buffalo and did some shopping on Wednesday evening, visited the falls and Clifton Hill on Thursday morning, Loralai had a nap on Thursday in the early afternoon, and then we went to the waterpark and had a blast!!

There are unfortunately no pictures of us at the waterpark, since I was alone with her and I was not going to leave the camera unattended, but the waterpark was just perfect for toddlers up to about the age of 12 years. Loralai had such a fun time on the mini water slides, the water swings, and the wave pool! Check out the pictures on their website and you will see what I mean!

We did get some pictures of some of the fun we had seeing the falls and playing on Clifton Hill.



Some of Loralai's favourites while on this trip:

• Of course the waterpark
• The huge fish tank at the Americana Hotel
• Throwing pennies in the water fountain near the falls
• The midway on Clifton Hill and riding in the princess car
• Running up and down the halls in the hotel

Amusement Park Adventure!

We experienced the "wonder" in Canada's Wonderland last weekend and it was sure a fun time!

We woke up on Sunday and Daddy had to go to work; Loralai and I knew that we just did not want to spend the day doing all the same old regular things, so we called Aunt Mindy (Loralai's Godmother), packed up, and headed to Wonderland! Loralai just did not know how to take in everything all in at once. It actually brought a tear to my eye about how excited she was! She just kept pointing at everything with a huge smile on her face.
I had a couple of reservations about her going on some rides by herself, I was hoping that she wouldn't cry, and she didn't! She loves rides!


Every time that you would take her off a ride, she would take off like a bat out of hell the opposite way because she wanted to go on again! Loralai did not really understand the waiting in line part, and we had to really talk about waiting out turn every time we stood in line for a ride, but by the end of the day she was much better!

All three of us had such a great time! I bought a season's pass for 2011 so that we can go more often, and she will be 3 and will be able to ride on even more! :) Can't wait!!

Weekend Memories and Mommy Vent

Loralai being a model for Mommy and showing off the new headbands I now have in my shop! These pictures were taken shortly after she got a slam dunk at the indoor play place! Woot Woot!


So Loralai has been a handful lately and I still have not quite figured out what works yet. Right after she gets into trouble for say: climbing on the drawer handles to get onto the counter, or running onto the road, or climbing onto the glass side tables so she can jump onto the couch, or when we are in a department store she will take off and hide. I will start to speak to her sternly and she start naming off the rule to what she just broke; for example: "no running", "no hiding", and today she said to Carrie "no nonsense"! lol...she is so smart but we have to make sure that we redirect her energy!

Do not get me wrong it is only when she gets board that she for the most part will start to be a handful, and that makes sense, I mean she is just 2. But it does make Mommy crazy sometimes!

One awesome thing that she does listen to is when we are in the parking lot and I have to rearrange something in my hands, or dig my keys out of my purse, I have her place her hand on the car, and she has always just kept it there until I tell her it is ok to let go!

I also make sure for all the "Loralai don't touch, be careful, we listen with our ears, time out, no, put that down, don't climb, etc" that I tell her that I am proud of something she has done! I think it is important to highlight her accomplishments because sometimes they can get lost in the shuffle, and she certainly needs to hear them!


By the way, check out my website since I just listed some new items I am excited about!

Loralai's room Part II.

I have added some new additions to Loralai's room over the last couple of weeks. I hung a line across the one wall and added some pictures, I wanted to be able to change them up from time to time. We bought the flower night light, and I covered her light switch with the same fabric as her bedding. Oh and if you notice in the first picture, my new addition to the shop "Lola" the owl! :)

New Room (in progress)!

Check out bits and pieces of my new big girl ROOM (in progress)!

We have been wanting to make Loralai a big girl room for a while now, but because of lack of funds we have not been able to create what I have envisioned for her space. Although it definitely is far from what I would like the end product to be, it is starting to take shape.

So last night I went to Winners just for a little retail therapy after a stressful day, I stumbled across this bedding and I fell in love! It is bright, vibrant, fun, and incorporated all the colours I wanted in her room. I also did not want to get her bedding that was too toddler like and that could grow with her for a while. It was a fabulous deal as well, it came with 9 pieces: the comforter which is reversible, two pillowcases (that I actually sewed together because she has a body pillow), an over-sized pillow with pillowcase (she is sitting on it reading her book), the sheet set (the top sheet I actually made a curtain out of), the wall stickers, a pink blanket, and a hamper, all for $80. You would think that for that price something would be lacking, but the quality is fantastic as well!

Eventually I would like to paint her room purple or green, put up wainscoting, and of course pick up her bed which is a hand me down from her cousin Charlie (Thank you Lissa!). Although the mod vinyl circles were not something that I necessary wanted to incorporate, she definitely needed something to spruce up her plain walls. I would like to get a book shelft, and I also ordered a couple of prints courtesy of Etsy! Which will look a little something like this:

Obviously the first picture will have all of Loralai's pertinent information and instead of a flower and ladybug will have a owl and a bird! If you like this is it by a talented local Etsy seller named Potatopatch. The 2nd print is from a talent Etsy seller Sugarfresh.

Did I mention Loralai loves it! She was so excited and was running around like a crazy little lady all day!

Hope you enjoyed your long weekend!

Push and Pedal!

It is very cool here yesterday to start off the last long weekend of the summer. We have had a heat wave for the past week but of course when Saturday rolls around we only had a high of about 16'c. But even with the cool weather we were productive and we had fun!

Loralai showing Mommy the tomato that she picked from our garden. There is also a large green pumpkin that is growing great and should be orange and ready for its debut by Halloween!

Now onto the reason for this post today: Loralai rode her tricycle correctly the first time last night! YAY!! Up until now she has sat on it and used her feet to move her around, we have kept encouraging her to use the pedals and push and last night she did it!!!

Other funny Loralai stories:

Loralai came running out from her room yesterday afternoon saying "egg egg", of course I walk over to her and she is pointing to her bum, so I asked her if she went poo and she replies "no, egg egg" lol. So of course I explained that she did in fact go #2 and there was not an egg in her diaper...lol I love the randomness, she just cracks me up!

Loralai was at the sitters on Wednesday and it was a beautiful day so the 2 little kiddies Ian and Ethan (both 2yrs old) wanted to run around the backyard naked, Loralai was hesitant but then decided that it looked like fun, so she also joined the boys bare bummed. Well when she walked outside the two boys looked and pointed at her and said "look", (I am assuming just thinking oh she is naked too) Loralai looks at them covers her chest and says "no my boobies!" haha too cute!

Birthday's!

We celebrated two birthday's this week; first my grandmother's 97th birthday and my 27th birthday! How great is it that my grandmother is exactly 70 years and 2 days older then me!

The whole family met at her retirement building last Sunday the 22nd, and my grandmother had such a great time! The pictures are not the greatest because they are taken from Todd's Iphone since the battery in our camera decided not to cooperate. If you look in the lower left hand corner Sofia, Loralai's cousin is wearing the dress that I had originally made for Loralai but did not fit her, but fits Sofia great! It was my first attempt at a pillowcase dress so it was not the greatest but looked super cute!

I went out with some friends last Saturday, and then on Tuesday the 24th for my actual birthday Todd took me out for dinner, and then tomorrow we are having a family BBQ. So I will update with photo's tomorrow night!

It has been a great week of celebrations!

26 months or 2.16 years

Loralai Fun facts:

• Loralai is 29lbs

• she loves to paint

• Loralai loves to help make smoothies with Mommy. Her new favourite phrase is "I help?"
  

• Loralai is starting to listen and understand much better everyday, which is a heaven sent for Mommy.

• When we are about the cross the road she will stop, take my hand, say "cars", look both ways, and say "no cars"! I was so proud of her every time she does this! However, I know that she does not quite get the whole concept yet about cars and the road being dangerous, but she does understand that is rule when we come to the road!

• She is starting to become more independent, and she plays and shares very well with other children.
  

• Loralai can meet friends fairly easily when we go to the park

• She is starting to speak in sentences, the most recent was when she was looking at my phone which has her picture as the screen saver, she looked at said "Mommy look it's me Loralai". I was so proud of her because she never says her own name, so it was exciting.

• Is pretends very well and you can tell that she has a great imagination!
  

Play like you mean it!

Over the last couple weekends we have gone to a quite a few parks and/or indoor play places with Loralai. I felt as though we just kept doing the same old thing all the time and we needed to switch it up a little, and Loralai definitely appreciated it!

We do have a park just by our house but on the weekends the three of us like to either find a new park or drive down to one of our favourites by the lake. This park in particular below is the first time we had taken Loralai to this different park by the lake, every time we have driven by in the past it was always so busy, and Loralai although not particularly shy or anything does retract a bit when a place is too busy mostly when there is a lot of older kids. But we were at Kempenfest which is a large outdoor vendor market, and although Loralai was being good you could tell she needed some let loose, run around, and be a wild 2 year old time!

In addition to the parks and which I have to admit was more for Mommy then Loralai, was taking a little time and trying out a couple of indoor play places we have in our city. Now I say more for Mommy because at the park Loralai is not content playing with the equipment that is recommended for her age, and I end up having to climb and stick within arms length of her at all times, which I do not mind doing but it does get exhausting. So one day when Daddy was working Loralai and I packed up and headed to a place called The Little Kridders Klub. We went on a beautiful day outside so the place was quiet other then about a handful of other kids, so it was perfect!

When we arrived you should have seen Loralai's face, it is like we went to heaven! As you can see by the pictures most of the place is climbing and tubes, Loralai without any fear went up and started exploring, needless to say we were there for 2 hours and she probably came down 4-5 times! She LOVED it! Last weekend we went to another indoor play place and it definitely was not as good, and Loralai noticed and had Mommy climbing up in the tubes with her...and although at both of these places they encourage parents to get in there and play with their kids, it was tough climbing around and I got several bruises on my chins! lol.
Well we will definitely be going back to The Kridders Klub soon!