T'was my birthday on Sunday.  My precious little Dyl bought me a spa gift certificate.  What an amazing gift.  That boy is miles ahead of other children his age when it comes to gifts.  Guess he has a dad who is also thoughtful.  I'm still enjoying my watch that my wonderful in-laws gave me.  Wear it almost every day.  My parents got me a slap chop (Hiii-ya !!) and Golden Girls DVD.  Ohhh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Golden Girls !    Mat's gifts came weeks earlier- awesome photography related stuff !  and of course my new camera (cha-ching) 

No cake, no dinner out for me since I'm on a new cleanse.  5 lbs down already.  Feeling good.  Since there was no birthday celebration, I've got no pics to show, so I thought I'd go back 1 year today and show a picture of the most important person in our lives.....

Our little man is the best.  He WANTS to go to bed so he can read.  He is obsessed with reading lately.  He's so into it, it's awesome !  He's also into fire trucks.  and buses.  as you can see, the fire truck has to go to bed with him too.  Oh well, he's happy, and he sleeps well.  And he gives us hugs and kisses and this wonderful smile before he lays down.  And he sleeps for 12 hours, which is amazing.



CHEESE

When I come with the camera, and say cheeeese... this is what I get....

 What a ham !!!!!  Eyes closed, head tilted up, mouth open = say cheese  :)

WARNING- i'm using BROWN font again..

This is the second post that I'm starting with " Mat said"  Ok, so Mat said "no one wants to see that picture"  Maybe he's right, but I'm all about keeping it real.  SO if you have a weak stomach, turn away, don't look.

And if you understand the humour and fun in poop... read on.

Last week I went in to get Dylan up from his nap.  Before he'd had his nap he was a crabby little boo bear.  Complaining all morning, and just not his regular happy self.  When I put him down, he went right to sleep.  I heard him wake up, went into the dark room to be greeted by a big smile (yeah I thought !!!) I walked further into the dark room, closer to his bed.... and what do I see????

Oh yes, he's happy .... help me out with that saying... happy as a pig in...... 

OHHHH yes..... happy happy.  He'd smeared it...all over.  HIS FACE.  HIS HANDS.  HIS LEGS.  My oh my !!!!!   So he ended up in the bath  and was soon back to his normal handsome, clean self.

Random Ramblings

One of my favorite bloggers is a lady named Kelle Hampton.  She's a photographer, but she's also a mother of two.  Her second little girl, Nella was born with Downs Syndrome, much to their surprise.  Nella just turned 1.  Kelle was raising money for Downs Syndrome in the US.  Her fans and friends and blog readers contributed over $100,000 in Nella's name.  It's pretty amazing.  If you've never heard of her, check her out, she is an amazing woman, and her birth story http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html is wonderful. 

You can find her at http://www.kellehampton.com/

The days up to Nella's birthday, I've been thinking about the first month with Dylan, when he was just weeks old and how hard it was, and how alone and lonely and overwhelmed I felt.  It got easier, but my mom dropped everything and came to Kamloops to help which was amazing and made everything better.  It's hard work raising babies. 

Raise your hand if you said I'm lazy.... <Sending you the stink eye>  I know who you are, and I know where you live work.

 Can you Help figurE out fRom mY cLues..... who said it????

hahaha... have a happy day (tuesday, not thursday), and thanks for reading. 

:)

And yes, I've been a bad blogger, I promise to try to blog more regularly.

Tracy xoxox

all about me...

So I just finished getting reprimanded (kinda) by Mat for the way I was dealing with our delinquent renter.  He often says to me that I'm hot-headed, that I don't think before I talk, that I act with too much emotion, that I should watch what I say, that I should be nicer, even if others don't treat me that way, and that I shouldn't  B U R N  B R I D G E S   I do have to admit, that I've followed what I thought I should do many times- stood up for myself, told people off, or told them how I felt and wondered, will I regret burning that bridge?    So today, after Mat and I disagreed about how to approach the above mentioned situation, I disagreed with him, and decided to say what I want anyway, without worrying about the consequences.  So I said it.  And I'm glad I did because it needed to be said.  She needed to hear it, and I needed to say it so that I DIDN'T ALLOW this situation to consume me or make me feel like I didn't have my fair say.  So I've had my fair say.  I've said what I wanted to.  Whether the other person takes responsibility for it or not, I've done my part and I'm happy with myself.  Sometimes we don't say things we really should for fear of burning those bridges. 

It's funny how life works.  After I decided to handle it the way I wanted to, I was surfing blogs, and came upon this quote, which I think was sent to me, special delivery.... I love it.

Just posting to say there is no post today...lol  Did I get your hopes up and then crush them ?  I always need to end a post- even a non post with a pic.

Our happy handsome boy  :)

say cheese Dylan... (it's wordless wednesday)

the simple things....

When giving Dylan a bath, one thing that I really love is the back of his head, with his wet hair.  I don't know why it's so striking, but I just think it's beautiful.  It's a simple thing, but I love seeing it....

so I had to photograph it.

the wrong way to blog a craft tutorial

What's the wrong way to blog about a craft tutorial?  Well, don't actually do a tutorial, just show the end product.

Ta-da

So I bought this GIANT wicker  toy basket, it was hideous- a horrible colour, so I repaired it, painted it and attached these giant letters that I painted to match the living room !

I think it's pretty snazzy, and it keeps EVERYTHING hidden away.

Too bad I wasn't on the ball and missed taking before, and during shots.

How do you spell sucker?

sucker in our house is spelt -M-O-M-M-Y-

Let me explain.  As you know, our neighbour's little girl has been staying with us.  We've been over to her house to play, to get more clothes etc.  Dylan has been fascinated with their fish tank.  And the one single solitary fish that lives there.  He's a bottom feeder (the fish, not Dylan), so Dylan looks for him, finds him, and says "fish-hide"  We say yes Dylan, the fishy is hiding.  So cute.

Well Rowan has gone back home, her dad is with her, and we are cut off from the fish.  Dylan is not happy.  He asks multiple times a day, everyday.

So fast forward to Friday night- I worked the evening and decided to go grocery shopping after work.  I ended up at Wal-Mart, headed towards the back of the store, found myself in the pet isle, in the fish supply section, debating for 30+ minutes over which tank to get.  By the time I got home, I had a fish tank and no groceries.   (oops)

So this morning, Dylan woke up to the tank.  Just a tank.  He kept saying "fish hide".  haha

We went out Saturday morning, and he met a very nice grandfather type name Doug at petland who commended Dylan on his interest in fish, and helped us pick one.  Dylan picked the red Siamese fighting fish.  Doug asked Dylan what he was going to name his fish- duh- he'll be called fish, of course.  (jeesh Doug)  With a high five for Doug, we headed home.  ( I told Mat not to high five Doug but he was really excited)

So "fish" is home in his aquarium, Dylan loves fish, keeps talking to him, watching him, and telling us about fish.

When Kerrie (our neighbour who has the fish that first turned Dylan on to fish) gets home from her tropical trip, I'm sending her my bill for the tank, the fish, the accessories, the fish house, aquarium plants.... on and on....  haha Just kidding. 

(check your mailbox Kerrie)  :)

Money saving idea

Mat had a money saving idea a few weeks back.  He has yet to follow through on it fully, but here it is- the beginning stages of a great idea.  And please, if you jump on board this amazing money saving idea- give him credit.  In all fairness, it is his idea.

The one, unfortunate flaw in this plan is that we rarely have Ketchup.  Maybe once a month.  If that.

Is anyone else troubled by the fact that we just got these from the mall and the date on them says 1997?  hmm.

Double the fun

So as I said the other day, Dylan's "sister" was staying with us for a few days.  His sister being our next door neighbour who is 6 and is close to our family and to Dylan.  Dylan just adores her.  Boy did they have fun.  Here is a synopsis of her stay. Hoping her mom and grandma see this when they get back.  She was lots of fun, we enjoyed having her.  Dylan was sad today that we couldn't go get her from school.  I think we might have to steal her for a night again in the future.

Friday we picked her up from Dance and the three of us went to Montana's for dinner.  Dylan, still being sick got really sick there, so we wolfed down our dinner and left quickly.  This is them cuddling before bed.

Saturday Rowan and I went to dance in the morning and met Mat and Dylan at the mall for lunch.  They went home after, and Rowan and I did grocery shopping.  Once we got back, we did some baking.  Banana muffins and Banana chocolate loaf.  Dylan joined us and the two worked beautifully together.

We made homemade waffles on Saturday and Sunday for breakfast.  We did it both days because they were so yummy.

Sunday we stayed home and made headbands together.  Dylan's birthday party was cancelled because he was so sick, so Rowan and I worked on our headbands, and before bed we put curlers in for school on Monday.

 Here she is Monday morning, dressed and ready to go with the headband that we created together.

Monday after school we went to Michael's for crafting supplies, and Rowan painted a wood jewelry box that we bought for her.  Of course Dylan had to help...

Tuesday we all piled into her bed and she read to me and Dylan. 

We managed to get homework done every night- she got all of her spelling words right, and we did the nightly reading.  She made it to school on time every day she was with us, ate the majority of her lunch, and was a good helper with Dylan.  Monday she woke up at 3:30 in the morning thinking it was morning...haha... ummm NO.  She slept well in her bed, managed to eat a good breakfast and get organized and dressed in plenty of time for school.  Dylan LOVED walking her to school, and peeking in her class. 

She was lots of fun to have. 

We hope her Mom enjoyed her time away, and will enjoy this peek into her little lady's "stay-cation"

A love affair...

Today's blog is about Dylan and his sister.  Well, he thinks he has a sister now.  Our next door neighbour's little girl has been staying with us since Friday while her family is away at a wedding in a lovely location.  I knew we'd all enjoy having her, but Dylan is smitten.

He runs and hugs her first thing in the morning.  He sits right beside her on the couch.  He listens intently to her.  He follows her everywhere.  He loved going out for dinner with her.  He loved taking her to dancing and trying his own dance moves in the studio.  He likes to sit and read with her.  He sits beside her and scribbles ( his homework) while she does hers.  He can't wait to go pick her up from school.  He is beyond loving having her here.

She'll be back at her place on Wednesday... I think our little man will be very very sad.

Here are a few of their adventures....

I'm TRYING to make a comeback !

New year, new colour !  I did say I wouldn't blog over the holidays, and it's been a slow road back.    I try to blog 5 days a week and have weekends off- i'm going to work really hard to make that quota, but I' gonna say it might be 4-5 blogs a week. 

Ok, so today's blog- our poor lil Dyl has been sick sick sick.  Horrible cold to the point where we cancelled his bday party (sad sad) and almost took him to the hospital.  He seems to be slowly improving, but he's got a croaky little voice, coughs often, and sometimes opens his mouth and tells me "mah-ee -- owww !"  Awww his lil throat hurts.  I made him some hot (warm) chocolate today to help make it feel better.  Here's our little sickie.  Fingers crossed this is the worst of it.

snotty, but still smiling !

"hot chocolate"

you can just see how sick he is by looking at his eyes

Cozy with sleeping babies, watching..... yup, Shaun the Sheep

He's so sweet.

wordless wednesday- christmas eve

We're back

Oh my gosh, I don't even know where to start... this post is going to be short, because I've been on the computer all night long.  I've been working on editing a boudoir shot that I did in Calgary.  Boy, that wasn't something I ever envisioned myself doing, but it was fun, and I love a lot of the images !  So tonight I've been editing, posting on facebook, posting on my website, and trying to organize photos in general.  I've also been working on my other baby- Ava Marie Creates, and trying to drum up business and have new people join my group, and eventually buy stuff !  Soooo I'm participating in three give aways through already established sites who are plugging me, and sending people to my page to check me out.  It's all about networking.  Jeesh, I'm tired.  But I'm making connections and working on both of my projects.

My favorite two legged "project" of course is Dylan.  He had so much fun in Calgary, so much fun at Christmas and his birthday.  This Sunday is another party !  Oh yes, and I go back to work at my crappy "real" job this week.  Enough said about that.

So, here are a few pics of our little man right before, on, and after he turned two.

can't stop it,so why try?  :)

what a great smile !

how chic is he with his snazzy outfit?

fun in the big bath

on his actual birthday, we took him to chuck e cheese to play and he loved it !

his dad loved it too....

and we love him... our big boy 2 yr old.  :)