and even more cards

More card crop cards!

Valentines Day Cards

A few Valentine's Day cards I have been working on for the "A year in cards" sketch crop @ http://www.lovebugscrapbooking.com/

Nik walking!

How to baste a turkey ...

Well in the move we threw out our old baster with full intentions to buy a new one... but totally forgot!

So Easter Sunday a little improvisation was called for....

Close up!

Everyone LOVED and complimented the turkey... maybe we're on to something here hehehe

Can ya tell me how to get....

A conversation with Dylan while doing a Sesame Street puzzle:
Dylan: "Do you know what number Sesame Street is?"

Mom and Dad:  "What ?"

Dylan: "123"

Mom and Dad:  "That's right... good job"

Dylan: "And I don't know how to get to any of those places?!?"

Moms helper?

It's amazing how Dylan and Nik look so different in appearance... but are so similar in so many other ways!

Taking the bite out of teething...

Teething whoas have been hitting us hard the past couple months. Two products  have been our life preservers.

First up the "Raz- Berry Teether" while at first glance this may look like a pacifier I assure you it is not. It is made from silicone and bpa free. The Raz-berry has multiple textures and unlike most other teethers the Raz-berry can be used "hands free".

Neither of my boys ever took interest in pacifiers. I personally have no problems with nummies, my little dudes just didn't want anything to do with them. So I was a little wary of the Raz-berry, but decided to give it a try after more traditional style teethers had failed.  First observations confirmed the Raz-berry is made for chewing (not sucking) and it much more easier for younger babies to handle and grasp than other popular teethers.   This unique little product is now baby Nik's best friend! In fact we went and bought a second one for those dreadful moments when raz-berry #1 is MIA! Nik likes to chew on all parts of the teether and seems to rotate his preference. There are a couple different color options available now.  We have the standard looking one pictured above and a second one with the blue colored berry. 

Raz- berrys are available locally at Coochicoo and  toys r us and retail for about $8.

Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Dh and I had been talking about getting getting a slapchop... so I went ahead and order him one for our anniversary and made him this little card for fun!

37 week belly

36 week check up

OB appointment today. 36 weeks measuring 39. Still down a lb ... as a result of being sick!

36 week belly

One happy mama!!

My Mother's Day / Birthday gift for this year was a brand new greenhouse. We started assembling this last weekend... but then all the illness hit. So construction only just got finished today! I think the picture of me in the greenhouse says it all lol

Shopping

We spent most of the morning shopping! Which might sound fun, but at this point definitely feels like more of a chore.

After reading a ton of reviews I finally decided on a monitor. The Safety First Digital Audio Monitor.




We tested it out... it is crystal clear and came with rechargeable batteries and adapters! I haven't tried it outside yet but I don't imagine there will be a problem.

Dylan got to pick out his gift for his little brother... to bring to the hospital when Niko is born. He picked out "Trotter the Pony" a cute toy by Lamaze.

Hell week

Well more than a week really... first Dylan, then me and then Doug... we all took a turn with the dreaded stomach flu. Poor dylan didn't know what hit him... it was the first time he has ever been sick like that and the first time he ever threw up. Needless to say it was a quiet Mother's Day around here! Dh was last to get it and he is just now feeling better today!

It hit me last Monday. I was getting ready for my 35 week obgyn appointment and felt nauseated. I got to Dr. K's office and never even had time to sit... had to run straight for the bathroom. I guess if you are going to get sick a doctors office is a good place for it! Dr. K prescribed me Dilectin; which is commonly prescribed for morning sickness. Not sure how well it worked on the stomach flu but it made me sleep. So I basically slept the stomach flu away. The dehydration was another story. It took me the full week to finally catch up on fluids. Stomach flu gone... bring on the chest cold. Not sure if it's a chest cold or the last symptom of that stomach flu thing. But I have a nasty cough that I can't shake. Will it ever end!

Disney Earth Rated G???

I had really been looking forward to Disney Earth, but we weren't sure if ds would be into a documentary type movie. So dh downloaded it. We had the UK version with Patrick Stewart as the narrator instead of James Earl Jones lol I'm glad I didn't pay money to see it... cause I think I seriously would have left before it ended and asked for a refund.

We three started watching it... but I ended up deciding to turn it off. It's beautifully shot, but I didn't really feel it was appropriate for little kids. It's rated G. But there seemed to be quiet A LOT of prey vs. predator type stuff, and to make it worst much of it was in slow motion. No blood or guts is seen, and in as much as I watched you don't see the predator dinning on his catch. They basically cut to something else after one animal catches the other. My kid knew what was on the go, and as soon as I heard him say "oh no" in a sad tone a couple times that was it for me!

There's also some starvation related scenes and a baby elephant gets lost from its mother.

I'm a documentary lover and have no problem with the reality of the prey vs. predator relationship and the harshness of nature. But I don't think that because it really happens means that it should get a G rating.

I definitely wouldn't recommend it for the animal lovers or the soft of heart. Nor for kids who get scared or startled easily. I haven't seen it all yet... but i was seriously choking up in parts. I really think the G rating should be rethought. Certainly wasn't a G movie in my mind.

kids in mind has a break down of the violent scenes:
http://www.kids-in-mind.com/e/earth.htm

Detergent and Diaper Reviews

I've been using an all natural laundry detergent called ECOS for about a year now. It's available locally at costco and I've heard Canadian Tire has it to (I've never actually looked to see if they have it but it's on their website). I was looking to see if there were any reviews for using ECOS detergent with cloth diapers and I found this link:

http://www.diaperjungle.com/he-detergent-chart.html

I linked to the HE machines but they have reviews for regular machines as well.

ECOS got 4 stars :D So that's great news! I won't need to buy any special detergent for diapering.

This site (diaperjungle) also has tips on washing and links to diaper reviews too!


More cloth diaper related reviews as well as review for tons of other stuff @
Nature Tree I can't wait to start using all my new supplies and write some reviews of my own :)

Spring is in the air

Nature Tots at the Botanical Gardens started up again today! Was a great first day back after a long winter. D and I both enjoyed ourselves and it was so nice today that we got to have story time and snack outside :) The topic today was "Composting", with the new addition of our worms it was right up d's ally! We are planning to head to the gardens tomorrow to help our fellow FOG (friends of the garden) members with the annual spring clean up!

After Nature Tots we dropped into Toysrus. They had My Brest Friend pillows on sale. So we picked up one of those. Also got a cute pair of baby legs for Nik. I didn't even know TRU sold them. I'm sure dh won't be impressed, he calls them leg warmers lol I got rockin' ones with skulls on them so they definitely don't look girly. I think they will be great for summer when the lil man will be wearing mostly onesies.

Playground Tour Begins

Today we had our first meet up for the 2009 "NLMOMS PLAYGROUND TOUR". We went to Victoria Park. The wind was a little cold, but all in all it was great to get out in the fresh air! All the kids had a blast and it was so difficult getting d to leave the park lol

Progress is sweet!

Last night we moved some of the bigger "toy" items into the nearly completed playroom. D was so excited this morning when he saw his train table in there. He was a great helper too! We transferred what I call "the collections" into the playroom today. So right now all trains, cars, dinosaurs and potato head items are in their new home. I made stickers to label the storage containers for the above items. D help decide what went into which container and then helped put the stickers in place. He proudly displayed them to dh when he got home. I'm hoping the stickers... and the "everything has a place/ home" motto will help to keep the playroom in some kind of livable form lol

Mom was asking if I had purged some of his toys. I haven't gotten to that yet, but hope to purge a little when I get into his toybox and the miscellaneous items tomorrow. The thing with d is he has been into the same few items for a long while now. When he goes to a store containing toys he wants to see the Thomas section and the Cars section lol So besides the occasional McDonald's toy and some other odds and ends from the dinosaur store (dollar store) there likely won't be much purging to do.