Gleem!

This afternoon I was given the opportunity to sit with my mom and sister, drinking coffee and eating cheesecake all while trying on beautiful pieces of jewellery! We were blessed today by Jane, who makes unique pieces of jewellery, by being given some new jewellery for our wardrobe. Each piece is unique and we were all able to find more than one thing that we loved!

Jane sells her jewellery (Gleem Jewellery) on her etsy store (click here to check it out). You can also see pictures of her stuff on her Facebook page. 

Thank you Jane for taking the time to visit with us and to check out Women Refreshed at the Well, and thank you so much for these beautiful gifts of jewellery!!

Here are some of the pieces we chose!

photoshoot at grannys

i love taking pictures of my girl, and she loves, loves LOVES the camera. (and the camera loves her I think!) I put her in this outfit and I thought it was too cute to not take some pictures in it. plus granny has a red chair infront of her deck that I always thought would be a perfect photo prop. Before I knew it I had 2 "assistants" - granny & auntie phoebe. Here are some of my favorites!!

7 things I have realized while raising my sweet 7 month old.

I started this post awhile ago, on June 14, and am just finishing it now, so here it is!

today my beautiful girl is 7 months old!!

So, why not share 7 things I have come to realize...

1. Having a daughter has made me even more content in my own skin. It feels natural to be her mom! Another way I've realized this is that I am totally content at home - I can spend the whole day with just her, and I feel like I have had a wonderful day. And then seeing other people is just a bonus!

2. Having a husband that chooses to be a hands-on-dad is something to be thankful for every single day. Michael loves to spend time with Matilda, and even gets up early to do so!

3. You know you are living a new sleep-deprived reality when you get 4 hours of a sleep in a row and you think to yourself, "wow, that was a treat!!" - thankfully Matilda is now sleeping unswaddled and through the night - this is not something to take for granted or to brag about either! :)

4. I am not a clean person in general - my house is normally some form of cluttered or messy - however, baby food has made me realize that a baby messy with food grosses me out!! Something I read said "put a dollop of the new food onto baby's high chair tray and let them explore it with their fingers." I tried that and the minute it was a big smeary mess and her hands went up to her hair - I was done!! I apologized to her as I was wiping her clean frantically with a cloth... I'm learning some flexibility with this one...

5. It is important to continually encourage her to try and learn new things. She is a quick learner, and I have often wondered if she could have mastered a skill sooner, had I only let her try (example: sitting and sleeping unswaddled). I am excited to help her learn how to crawl but I am also loving the ease of having a stationary baby.

6. Having a baby in the winter was perfect timing - when we didn't need to go out, we didn't even want to - and now that we are going on outings and spending time in the stroller, swings, grass and bike, it is so nice to have the beautiful weather. Mental note - next time get pregnant again mid-winter!

7. I have never loved someone as much as I love Matilda. When I'm not with her I'm looking at pictures or videos of her or at least talking about her. She is her own unique self and she is beautifully content and happy. I am excited to watch her grow up and change but I am loving to just soak her in now. The other day my sister Leah was telling her boys, "sometimes I love to just sit and watch baby Matti!" and I couldn't agree more :)

Here is her update!
(click on the image to enlarge it enough to read the update - the older she gets, the more things there are to write about!!)

catching up

I had decided I wanted to make some type of monthly "tradition" to track Matilda's first year.

I thought about buying those stickers that say "1 month" "2 months" etc and then taking a picture of her wearing one on her shirt each month - and, well, we're coming up on 3 months and I don't have the stickers. I also thought about making a little sign or something that we could make each month - good idea, but again, coming up on month 3 and nothing yet! SO. I decided to make up my own thing, and make a collage of sorts - with a couple pictures of her, her "stats" of the month and a list of things that are characteristic of her at that time. So - I am catching up.

(*click on the pictures to make them big enough to read the writing*)

First is her birth announcement (picture by me, and put together beautifully by my dearest friend Audrey)

Then month 1:

And month 2:

and now I am caught up and will post the rest of the months as they happen. I love catching up.

A perfect mix.

So everyone always asks me, "who do people say Matilda looks like" to which I say, "Michael" and they respond, "ok that's what I was going to say too."

Well my friends, my sweet girl sure does resemble her sweet dad but this week I was going through boxes of stuff (a lot of junk I had accumulated over the last 27 years) and I found a picture that proves that my babe looks more like me than you may see at first glance, see for yourself! (I was 2 months in this picture and Matilda is also 2 months in her picture)

happy halloween!

I realized today that I had neglected to buy and carve a pumpkin so..

here's my pumpkin!

happy halloween - I'm secretly hoping to go into labour in the next half hour so I can turn off my lights and eat all my candy myself.. :)

our baby will be so cute :)

so maybe this is a vain post - but hey - I was looking through baby pictures of both Michael & I and we were both pretty cute - so how cute is our baby going to be!!

It makes me so excited to imagine what features it will have of mine and what features it will have of Michaels. Either way, I know we will think it is the cutest baby of all time :)

Here are alternating pictures of Michael and I as kids:

day 30: you, then

this is me
in all my pink loving glory
one halloween many years ago
this picture just makes me laugh


that's it - 30 days of september
30 pictures
more work than it sounds like it would be
hope you enjoyed it! :)

day 29: errand

clearing snow 

i suppose it is more of a "chore" than an errand

(or for michael - who owns a snow clearing business, I guess it's just work)

and this picture is very old

BUT I thought it would be a cute one to represent us doing the "errand" of snow clearing

this picture is from the first winter that we were dating

and now we've been married 4 years

and I'm glad there is no snow on the ground.. yet.

day 27: love/hate

love/hate

i LOVE this picture

it makes me laugh

my dad wanted us (him, myself & my cousin Amanda) to do our "facebook pose"

he was convinced that this is how everyone poses on facebook

this picture also brings me back to my wedding rehearsal

since that's where it was taken

such a fun and wonderful day

so.. hate?

well, i hate that my cousin amanda lives far away!

she moved to Toronto

and I'm happy for her and everything

but really.. it's not here!

day 26: near

near

i love this picture

it is NEAR to my heart

auntie ashley & uncle mikey looking on to the sweetest little christmas present

the christmas of 2009

sweet little Everett John

but the other meaning of NEAR with this picture

is that Christmas is near (whether or not you like counting down this early - i do!)

and the other thing that is near - soon we will be gazing on a cute little baby again

like we are in this picture

but it will be OUR BABY.

6 weeks to go (or more, or less..)

but it is getting NEAR!

day 25: frame

frame

for todays picture I'm picking one that I think is "frame-worthy"

this is my family - the one I married into, but feel like I was always part of

2 Christmases ago I bought us some party crackers

complete with these crowns

and we decided to take family pictures

my dear hubby likes to always be different

so for the "serious" picture, he was crazy

and for this "crazy" one, he was normal.

he certainly is the baby of the family - can get away with anything!

day 23: before bedtime

before bedtime -
we brush our teeth
we wash our faces
we watch an episode of one of our favorite shows
we hug and kiss 3 times (one for me, one for mike, one for the baby)
and we fall asleep.

day 22: up

so, these 2 photos are something that never fails to cheer me UP. and that is how it qualifies to fit under the title "up".
my friend audrey & I used to work together and we were at a work conference when we took these pictures and the day had been a bit.. long.
hope they cheer you UP too

day 21: sometimes

sometimes

sometimes i take pictures of myself

sometimes i find really good lighting

sometimes my eyes are big and extra blue

sometimes i take the time to curl my hair

and sometimes, just sometimes I am not a blonde

this picture was one of those sometimes

day 20: man made

one of my favorite man made things - my piano. I am so grateful that my Grandparents saw how much I loved music and gifted me with this piano. I think of them everytime I play it. It is one of my favorite places to be. By myself or with family or friends. Playing worship songs or just random songs. Writing music and playing music written by my friends. 

I'm not the greatest piano player, but I play with a real love for music, and I am so thankful to have this "man-made" item in my possession. 

day 19: underneath

underneath that belly of mine is a place that I am seeing less and less of. my toes are not something that I can see easily and I may or may not have become a bit out of breath taking this picture (it didn't help that I attempted to paint my toenails prior!)

soon I'll be able to see them again, but I'll be too busy staring at a cute little baby!

day 17: in my fridge

These days I'm trying to fill my fridge with healthy foods, trying to feed my baby the right things, but hey.. it's autumn and autumn means pumpkin, so... if you look into my fridge you will see the tastiest treat - pumpkin spice latte cupcakes. want one? come on over!!

day 15: first thing you see

the first thing I see every morning is this - my alarm clock showing the magic number: 7:53 - the perfect time so that I can hit my snooze (7 minutes) at not actually have to get up till after 8!

day 13: table

here is a little confession - michael and I almost never sit at our table.

we decided that until we had kids (and had to pretend to be more proper for their sakes.. ha!) we would eat wherever we felt like it. So we normally sit in the living room on the couches. I know some people wouldn't agree with that, but hey.. it's how we roll and it works for us :)

Plus, our kitchen is also our dining room and there is really no room to pull our table out from against the wall (although we make it work when we have people over)... and... I tend to store way too many things on the table anyway.

But, when I think of a table I think of all kinds of things - doing homework, having company over, rolling out dough, planning our house plans.. etc. But my favorite thing is, time around the table with our families. It is fun to sit around the table and share a meal, to sit for hours and have coffee and conversation. to celebrate birthdays and open gifts. to make announcements. etc The table is a place for fellowship and that is a good thing.

This picture is from my brother's 30th birthday - I took on his meal, and made him bbq chicken with rice and fruit salsa (a "drunk" version - with rum - and a normal fruit version for those who do not eat rum with their meal - like everett). This picture reminds me of a very fun evening being with my family and sharing a meal. plus, Josh & Leah have grandma & grandpa's old dining room table, and that table reminds me of many family dinners and conversations. memories!