June 28, 2013

summer gift guide

today we have a guest sharing about 8 perfect summer time gifts.
lets welcome Kristin.

I am a mommy of two and love to be active with my family, especially in the summer. I am a freelance writer and went to college to study writing as a minor. In my free time I write, bake, and garden.

8 Awesome Summer Time Birthday Gifts to Give
There is nothing I love more than giving a unique gift to someone I care about. I want the person to know that I really went the extra mile to fine something that fits their personality and style perfectly. When someone has a birthday in the summer, the possibilities are really endless. Here are eight awesome summertime birthday gifts.
1.     iPhone case: Everyone loves getting tech-centric gifts. Instead of just going to the mall and picking up a standard iPhone case, I like to add a personal twist to it. I order customized iPhone cases on Shutterfly.com. This way I can add photos to it or someone’s initials. It makes for a really unique gift and everyone knows you can’t just pick something like this up without some forethought.

2.     Tote bag: When summer rolls around, there will certainly be plenty of trips to the beach, the pool, or the lake. And a must-have is a solid tote to carry everything. While it sounds like a boring gift at first, you can really make it custom by creating the ultimate totebag from L.L. Bean. Their custom “Boat and Tote” bag is a personalized twist on their classic tote bag. You can pick the color of the bag, the color of the handles, and add the person’s initials or name.

3.     Sea glass necklace: Another great summer treat when you are on the beach is finding sea glass.  Sea glass is glass that has been weathered by the beach and either fresh or salt water. Over time the glass becomes naturally frosted. Many people collecct sea glass when they see it on the beach and some even use it to make jewelry. That’s exactly what White Light Productions has done. They create beautiful jewelry from sea glass.



4.     Baseball cufflinks: Nothing says summer like baseball. And the man in your life will definitely appreciate these baseball cufflinks. What makes these really unique, however, is that they are made from baseballs used at actual major league games. This will make for a impressive gift!

5.     Cruiser bicycle: When I was little, my first bike was a Huffy. I rode that bike until I was too tall for it and needed a new one. Huffy now has an awesome Panama Jack version of the classic cruiser bicycle. This is the perfect bicycle for the summer! Everytime I head down the shore I see vacationers riding up and down the boardwalk on cruisers. The special person who receives this as a birthday gift will definitely appreciate it!

6.     Baby beach chair: There are plenty of great summer birthday gifts for the kids. Every little boy or girl needs their own beach chair. It is also important to have an umbrella nearby to keep away the sun’s strong rays. What makes this chair and umbrella set unqiue is that you can have it customized with the little beach goer’s name and design! Whether they love going fishing or picking flowers, you can have this set customized to exactly their liking.

7.     BBQ sauce: Anyone who loves to grill in the summer knows that a quality BBQ sauce is critical. While it may sound like a silly gift, anyone who is a grill aficionado will certainly appreciate BBQ sauce from Rufus Teague. Even the pickiest of sauce fans will find something they like in this complete line of sauces. 
8. Grill: The ultimate summer birthday gift is of course the grill! And of course the ultimate grill will obviously come from the top grill manufacturer – Weber. The Performer Grill will surely impress any grill chef and is definitely the top summer birthday

thanks for sharing Kristin!
be sure to go follow Kristin on twitter to connect with her.
@InstaMommy

June 24, 2013

anniversary weekend recap

 this weekend marked our first anniversary! we decided to have a little family weekend getaway. it was so much fun to have a weekend with nothing planned and to adventure around at our own pace.

we hit the road and drove a few hours away to kenora, ontario.  it was micah's first time going to a different province, so of course we had to document it. he was such a good little travel buddy.


 we of course had to take our picture with husky the musky. i propped the camera on a picnic table and ran to get in the picture. it was the best we could do. the beauty that surrounded us was amazing. as a kid i would go camping here with my family. i have many memories of this place. it's exciting that i am able to make memories with my own family now at this same place.


 another first for micah this weekend was going swimming. he had just poked himself in the eye really hard so he has a scowl but i think he enjoyed it. he didn't cry and the water was cold, so that's a good sign. hopefully we will be able to hit up the beach and pool a lot this summer. 

we were able to enjoy a lot of walking and taking in the beauty around us. can you spot the fawn?

we will be back! if not for the nature, relaxed paced living, then definitely for the nutella filled perogies @twistedperogy


since google reader is no longer as of july 1. be sure to follow along with my blog via facebook, twitter, instagram or

June 23, 2013

one year!

 it has been one amazing year since this beautiful perfect day!
so much has happened this past year and i wouldn't change a minute of it.


 here is to 50 more years babe.
i love you!

June 17, 2013

life lately


 
shades for sunny days :: cutest sad baby there ever was :: fist sucker :: big morning stretches

 

my baby is growing up, and getting cuter by the day


zoo with daddy :: sweet baby bear :: happy baby after naptime :: arts and crafts with micah

June 13, 2013

micah's birth story


i finally got around to writing micah's birth story. i love reading others birth story and want to share our story with you.

monday march 25 i had, had contractions on and off for several weeks at this point and didn't really think much of it when contractions started at 4:30pm.  i made supper, spicy thai noodles. i was trying to eat as much spicy food, pineapple and raspberry tea as possible to get things going. clint got home an hour later i told him i had a few contractions and we decided to start timing them since they had been happening for over an hour. we had plans to go out for wings night with our small group from church, i wasn’t sure if it was the real deal and i was feeling pretty good so we headed out.

that evening i was pulling out my phone pretty consistently, i hate when people are texting when they are out with friends but my contraction timer was on my phone. while out the girls were asking me what i would do if i went into labour and if i would tell them if i was having contractions. i told them i would, but i never did. we dropped our friends off and got home around 11pm and i tried to go to bed but after an hour of tossing and turning and realizing that sleep wasn’t going to happen i moved to the couch and watched tv and let clint sleep a bit.

 tuesday march 26 all night my contractions were consistently 8-9 mins apart. as my contractions started getting a bit more intense i paced the hallway and kitchen and by 4:30am the contractions jumped to 2-3 mins apart. i timed them til 5am and woke clint up telling him we would probably need to leave in the next half hour. i went and made coffee, did the dishes and  put my make up on, called my mom to tell her it was go time. i told her that i didn’t feel like my contractions were very intense but wanted to go in to the hospital since they were close together and we had an hours drive ahead of us.

both clint and i were so calm. we both expected that we would be frantically trying to get out of the house but it was the complete opposite. we were both so relaxed, although i've never seen clint  wake up so quickly. we double checked to make sure we had our bags, camera, car seat and off we went to the hospital at 6am. clint drove the speed limit the whole time we were so calm but so excited that soon we would be holding our sweet baby!

we got to the hospital around 7 am walked in the emergency entrance since the main entrance was still closed, my sweet best friend also met us there. the security guard asked if today was the day and pointed us in the right direction, we knew where we were going if we went in the front entrance but didn't know the way from emergency. we headed down the long hallway to the elevators and up to the third floor. i was so excited at this point. i felt like i'd be holding my baby in a few hours. we filled out the paper work and i hopped up on the bed to be checked out. i was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. there was still progress to be made but i was very excited that i was far enough dilated that i got to stay at the hospital. next came the dreaded IV. i didn't handle that so well, closest i've ever come to fainting. the nurse called out we need cranberry juice and a cold face cloth and two seconds later there was a cloth around my neck and a straw shoved in my mouth.

the dr. came in and said i was looking good and but his shift was over so the new doctor would be coming around right away, i asked who it was and it just so happened that it was my doctor who was on shift next! i was very excited because my doctor is fabulous and i was really hoping she would be the one delivering my sweet babe.

we got moved into our room, I didn’t want to sit because on the drive in my contractions had slowed down to 6 mins apart so we started walking the halls. my mom showed up around 9:30 am with my sister and we started crying because we were so excited that this was actually happening! we continued to walk the hall to keep things going.  at 11 am the resident came in and checked me and said that i wasn’t progressing very much and so they wanted to put me in synto drip to get things moving along. i really did not want to do this but they hooked me up so that we could get things moving a bit quicker. i was confined to the bed at this point so i asked for an exercise ball and started doing squats on the bed. within 30 mins the synto was working it magic. my contractions increased in intensity and and length. each contraction lasted two hours with about 30 seconds in between to breath. as time went on the contractions got more intense and the resident came back and said to up my synto drip because i wasn’t progressing enough, talk about discouraged! the nurses looked at her in shock and i said please no! i was curled up in a ball and moaning, my body was unable to get a break since my contractions were lasting two hours. i started crying out of frustration, why weren’t things moving quicker?! after the resident left the nurse checked me and said i was progressing and i was at 6-7 cm and completely effaced and that she wasn’t going to increase my synto drip unless my doctor ordered it. i was so thankful because i wasn’t sure i could handle much more.  
 clint and my mom were so encouraging through all of it! my mom kept telling me i was beautiful and clint kept telling me i was doing a great job and helped with my breathing.  i had mom on back rubbing duty and clint held my hand and i had to be able to see him at all times.

at around 4 pm they were having a hard time keeping the monitor on micah because the contractions had him moving all over and i was curled up. so the resident came back at 5 pm and hooked up a head monitor to him. i hardly felt human at this point because i had so many wires and tubes connected to so many different places on my body. while the resident was there she asked if i wanted an epidural, i quickly replied no. i heard a quiet gasp sweep the room. after the resident left clint, mom and the nurse all asked why i didn’t want an epidural and they all said that i should get one so that my body could have a break and save some energy for pushing time. the sweet nurse then told me that since this was my first baby that i would probably be pushing for 2-3 hours. i agreed to get an epidural since it looked like it would be several hours of crazy two hour contractions ahead of me.

at around 6 pm my doctor finally came to check me. i asked if i could go off of the synto drip and she said yes. Praise the Lord! i got my epidural and was able to breath for the first time in hours it felt like. however the epidural only took on the right side of my body. the left side was completely unaffected by the epidural so the nurses started rolling me from side to side. this caused micah to get stressed and his heart rate shot up and nurses came rushing in. i became very worried and was hoping this didn’t mean i would have to have a section. once they stopped rolling me around micah’s heart rate went back to normal. a nurse came in to check me i was still at 7cm, ugh! i was hoping i was closer to the end than that! when she checked me micah’s heart rate went shooting up again, the nurses flooded in again, they started rolling me around again. this happened several times and we realized that if my right leg moved at all then micah’s heart rate shot up. i had to lay still, even if my foot moved his heart rate shot up. my doctor came back to check me at around 9 pm and my contractions had slowed down to much so they put me back on synto, i was not pleased but i knew there needed to be an end to this seemingly endless labour.

i felt all the contractions but couldn’t move otherwise micah’s heart rate would shoot up, so i was squeezing clint’s hand a lot. a nurse came in to check me around 11:30 pm and said i was 8cm and that if i felt i needed to push that i shouldn’t because it can cause inflammation and that would make things take longer yet. we were nearing the end and i was getting excited.

wednesday march 27, 1 am i NEEDED to push! clint was so encouraging and helped me with my breathing so that i wouldn’t push. i was so frustrated. i wanted this all to be over and to be holding my baby in my arms. the nurse checked me and said i was 9cm. i so badly wanted her to say i was 10cm but i remembered what she said about pushing early so i tried my hardest not to push. the nurse went and called my doctor and the whole pediatrics crew since little mans heart rate was going crazy. at 1:30 am i got the go ahead to push, and push i did.  i had the nurses voice in the back of my mind telling me that i would push for 2-3 hours since this was my first time. that gave me the drive to get this baby out of my. i pushed with all i had in me, i thought i was going to blow ever blood vessel in my head. the doctor said i was doing great and only a few more pushes. i thought to myself, she’s just saying that. the next push she says, “oh babies hand is by it’s head” i replied, “do i keep pushing?” she never said anything so i kept pushing. next contraction i was given an episiotomy, clint had to hold my leg back from kicking the doctor in the face, OUCH! my mom had to lay down because she got a little light headed. next contraction i gave it everything i had and told the doctor to pull this baby out of me. i pushed one last time at 2:21am and then had the most beautiful baby i had ever seen laying on my chest. i asked clint what it was. he was in shock, his adrenaline had worn off and he turned white and all he said was “whats, what?” the nurses told him to sit. someone told me it was a boy. i cried and couldn’t take my eyes off him. 

labour didn’t go anything like i had wanted it to but the end result was getting to hold my sweet baby boy in my arms so it doesn’t really matter.
micah william alexander enns 
march 27th, 2:21 am
8 lbs 8oz
21 1/4 inches

June 11, 2013

10 on 10

 10 am - feeding this sweet babe

11 am - stamping and addressing micah's birth announcement cards 

 
 12 pm - getting this sweet babe after his very short nap

1 pm - heading out the door to run some errands

 2 pm - getting back home after errands

 3 pm - snuggles with my little man

 4 pm - opening my happy mail from sticky gram!

 5 pm - waiting for daddy to get out of the shower

 6 pm - supper!!

 7 pm - bath time.





June 6, 2013

two months (a week late)

my sweet little monkey is two month old! 
how did this happen? time needs to slow down. 
i fall more in love with him every day. 

......
i am two months old. 
i hate tummy time. 
i love bath time. 
i think chewing on blankets is lots of fun.
i love to smile and squirm about. 
i do not like my soother.
i like to talk and tell stories.
i anticipate zerburts from daddy when he comes home.
i know that when i wake up from my nap mommy is going to eat my cheeks...everytime! 
......
this sweet boy makes my heart swell.
i love him.

June 5, 2013

i'm back!

 wow it's been quiet around these parts! we have moved and are almost settled in there are a few things that i still need to find a home for. we finally got our internet hooked up and i am so thankful for that. my sweet baby boy is growing like a weed! i wish time would slow down. here are a few pictures of life lately.


my sweet little family! 


his gummy goofy smiles make my heart flutter.


saturday mornings are the best! 


he loves watching his daddy.