Charlie took his 1st steps!!

Charlie took his first official steps tonight!! 2 giant steps to Daddy!!

I will update more, and with pics soon!!
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Guilt Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake!!

I have been loving anything with chocolate and peanut butter lately- but constantly eating peanut butter ice cream is not helping me lose the leftover baby weight... so I thought I would try something a little less bad for me... so why not throw some cocoa and peanut butter together with some ice... it turned out fantastic!!  I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of ice
• A giant heap of peanut butter
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 2 tsp sugar (add to taste)
• Milk- just enough to cover the ice and PB... but less if you like it thicker

Throw all ingredients into the magic bullet (or blender)
Blend.

Change up the ingredients to taste... i might try a banana instead of peanut butter tomorrow!  Could work for breakfast with some protein powder too!

How to change a tire... 2 year old style!!

Hmmm... what is the problem??

 First I have to twist these things...

 Then I use this thingy... and I puuuuushhhhh

 Then twist some more

 And TAAA DAAA

 It's a tire treasure!!

 Now I look through this thing...

 and I bring it to Daddy!

 Ewww... it was dirty!

 ALL DONE!!!

 Gotta get clean

 LOVE!!



New school, New job... lots of changes!

Last week a lot of changes were confirmed for us!

After being on the wait-list for over a year, Lily was accepted into the pre-school in the "big kid" school down the street!  She is going to start on August 3rd.  Currently I drive her to the town over a few days a week for pre-school... it will be very nice to only have to walk 5minutes or drive for 1.  We went for a tour last Friday and she is very excited to start there.  We will really miss her current school and teachers, Lily adores them... but it will be much nicer to have her so close to home!

I also had a big change last week... I resigned from the company I have been at for the last six years!  They were over an hour commute away, and were not being very accommodating for my return from maternity leave.  I decided awhile ago I would look for something new, and I was very lucky, and now am going to be working for an amazing company called Diva International.  They are the creators of The DivaCup!  I started today just for a little bit of training, but I will be starting full time in September when my maternity leave is over!  It is a great company, with amazing people, and I am really looking forward to working with them all.  If any of you readers are interested in trying the DivaCup and would like more information, let me know!

In the fall we are very fortunate to have our mom's watching Charlie full time, and Lily part time!  Nelson's mom is going to watch Charlie Monday-Thursday, and Lily on Tuesdays- she is also going to walk Lily to and from school each day!  My mom is going to come out here on Friday's to spend the day with the kids!  It makes me feel great knowing they will be well cared for while Nelson and I are at work. 

Best Summer Toy EVER

We got a water table this year- my mom found it at our community yard sale... the best $5 ever spent!  I was going to go out and buy a brand new one- but then she found this one!

Both our kids, and their friends, all love the water table! They will play outside with this table for hours, literally, hours!

Our backyard deck is shady from about 2pm, so it is perfect!  We also set up a small splash pool for them as well.

If you have kids, and it gets hot where you live, go out right now and get yourself a water table- you will never regret it!

Charlie is 10 months!

I really can't believe my baby boy is going to be one in just 2 more months!

He is walking along furniture all the time, he will let go and stand on his own too! He somehow manages to get into everything- even when we think there is nothing for him to get into. His favourite toys are Lily's... with the addition of his Mickey Mouse dolls and his toy cars! He loves to chew on puzzles as well. Charlie really loves to play outside with the water table- he gets so excited and squeals with delight when he gets wet!

Charlie pretty much eats whatever we do- I still make him some of his own foods to eat when ours aren't suitable... his favourite being pasta risotto, which I will post a recipe for soon!

He loves to "talk" all day long- and sometimes it seems Lily understands him.

Camping!

We went camping over Canada Day weekend and had a great time... Although, I most likely wont be camping again until I don't need to worry about bottles, diapers and baby food!  We had 10 people total camping- us 4, my friend Kellie, her husband, and their 2 kids, as well as my sister and her husband!  It was fun- 6 adults, 4 kids, and 1 dog!

We left Friday morning and drove the 3hrs up to the camp grounds- we made a quick lunch stop at Pizza Hut, and continued on!  Once we got to the campsite we quickly got to work setting up the tents and figuring out how to park the cars to block in our area best!  The girls had fun running around with their Canada flags and exploring our area!

The girls really loved being outside, as did the boys... but the boys are both crawlers- so it was somewhat frustrating for them, as we didn't want them crawling all over the ground- so they were limited to a blanket- or the pack n plays!  A crawler is definitely not the ideal camper!

We had some great meals, card games, walks and fun in the water!  The girls LOVED smoores- they were amazing!  They also enjoyed the sparklers and roasting marshmallows.

I was really surprised at how well the kids went to sleep- both nights Lily went into the tent on her own when she was tired, and she fell right asleep!  She did have a few nightmares and a leaky air mattress- so she slept with us both nights once we came into the tent.  Charlie fell asleep with his last bottle each night and slept almost 6hrs straight!  Our mornings were early due to the light!

I generally try to be a relaxed mom... but in some cases I just can't... camping would be one of those cases!  I was so nervous about poison ivy (there were warning signs), the camp fire, bug bites, sparklers, the bbq's, wandering off, etc- I felt somewhat nervous all weekend :(    We did have a few accidents through the weekend- Lily fell 3 times and scraped the same knee, and Charlie "fell" into some rocks when Lily was hugging him a bit tight and let go quickly.

But overall we had lots of fun!