liam lately

It's very strange to realize just how many photos I use to take of Liam while I was at home.  (seriously, I think I've filled most of our hard drive)  Now that I'm back at work I don't get to spend my entire day with him and document all the fun, crazy, amazing, silly things he does.  Last week I broke out the SLR, after picking him up, and captured a few moments he was having with his train and fishy crackers.  At one point he was trying to feed the train his crackers.  He absolutely loves to share.  I'm pretty sure that he's just going to be that kind of kid (it makes me smile inside).

On a completely unrelated note ... I'm off for my first girl's only (kid free) weekend!!

Mama's gone wild, party on!!!

Happy Friday and even Happier Weekend!!

pumpkin bumpkin

With the arrival of fall I find that I'm spending more and more time ... baking!  This is a double edge sword however.  I enjoy baking, strangely enough I actually find it therapeutic.  But even though I enjoy the making of good things and the eating of good things.  It actually isn't good for my waistline.  If it's sweet and in my house then I want to eat it.  Oh well, pumpkin is healthy for you right??

I found this delicious recipe a few years ago.

Almost as good as pumpkin pie ... almost.

abc ...

via

... 123?  No I'm not going to do a tribute post to the Jackson 5 (I'm not that cool).  Instead I'm going to do something else.  I'm going to share a little bit about me.  I don't really do it that often, let's face it ... this blog is dedicated to someone much littler and much cooler than me.  I saw this great idea on many blogs I follow but really it was Mandy from Mama and the Dudes that inspired me to do my own.  So here's some tidbits about moi ...

Age ~ 32 ... but the thirties are the new twenties right?  I think someone in their thirties just made that up to make themselves feel better.  :  )

Bed Size ~ Queen.  I desperately want a king ... queen just isn't big enough!

Chore you hate ~ Cleaning the bathrooms.  YUCK!  And really who does enjoy cleaning up someone else's pee.  How hard is it to aim INTO the toilet???

Dogs ~ I've had two growing up.  Sparky and Murphy.  None of our own now, but when Liam gets older for sure!

Essential to your day ~ Vanilla Latte.  My Tassimo is my new best friend and we get together for coffee every morning.
 
Favourite colour ~ Green.  Every shade, except maybe baby puke green.  

Gold or Silver ~ I'll have both please!

Height ~ 5.5"


Instrument you play ~ I have played the flute for twenty-two years.  I started in elementary and was a "band geek" all through Jr. and Sr. High (proud of it too).  I played with the University Symphonic as well.  Don't play all that much now ...


Job title ~ Middle school teacher, wife, mama (which includes chef, chauffeur, event planner, assistant, counselor, nurse, player of games, etc.) 


Kids ~ Liam, 14 months

Lives ~ Western Canada

Mother's name ~ Melanie

Nicknames ~ Moj, Moji, Mari-Moj, 

Overnight hospital stays ~ None yet.  Knock on wood.  I didn't even stay overnight when Liam was born.  I dislike hospitals!


Pet peeves ~ people who wait in line at Starbucks, get to front and still have no idea what to order and stand there saying "uhhhhh, ummmmmm, uhhhhhh".  Seriously people you waited for 5 minutes, plenty'o time to figure out this. 

Quote from a movie ~ "Sixty percent of the time it works every time."  ~ Anchorman

Right or left handed ~ right handed

Siblings ~ younger brother, Ryan

Underwear ~ under.  there.

Vegetable you hate ~ brussel sprouts.  Dis-gus-ting!

What make you late ~ Starbucks.  But that's okay ... I still heart you pumpkin spice latte!

Xrays you've had ~ pretty much every finger and toe.  I broke a lot of my digits when I was little.  Also the typical dental xrays. 

Yummy for you make ~ Ummmm, I think everything I make is yummy.  But I've been told I make a killer Turkey dinner ... bring on Thanksgiving!

Zoo animal ~ Baby zoo animals.  How can you not love baby animals? 

i want to ride my bicycle, i want to ride my bike

Over the summer we decided to get off our butts ... only to get back on our butts ... on our new bikes.  A couple weekends ago we pulled out the bikes and headed to Glenmore park for a ride around the reservoir.  It seems like now all of our family fun time only happens on weekends.  Le sigh.  Guess that's way things go now.  I look forward to every weekend more then ever before.  Even better than that is a long weekend!

 Thanks Mother Nature!  The lasting warm weather is not going unnoticed.

fourteen

Happy fourteen months little dude.  I seriously can't believe that this time last year I was a new mom and my baby boy was already two months old.  Things are definitely a lot different now!  Liam has become such a little boy, no longer a baby ... but not quite a toddler yet.  He inspects, handles, and is fascinated with absolutely everything.

Liam at fourteen months:

~ he is starting to want to do everything on his own.  He's finally drinking from his big boy cup, totally prefers a straw cup to a sippy cup.  I'm now thankful that he never took a bottle because we had no transition time.
~ he's figured out that Mommy and Daddy use utensils to eat with ... so now he wants them too.  Huh-lari-ous to watch him eat yogurt with a spoon.  More of it ends up on his face, in his hair and on the floor then ever in his mouth, but he's so proud.
~ still walking assisted but has realized that he can actually stand on his own without help, so I'm sure walking is not far off.
~ Liam's actually crawling.  He slithered for so long I though that was his form of crawling.  Turns out it was just easier to do that on our hardwood floors.  Who knew???
~ He's such a tiny guy, but we've actually graduated to 12 month clothing.  Truth be told ... he was wearing 6-9 month pants until a couple weeks ago.
~  We've got some words starting to show, besides the basic mama and dada.  He points to cats and dogs and says "Ca!" or "Awg!".  More often than not it's "awg".  I'm sure that a dog is in our future, perhaps very near future.
~ and he loves ... absolutely loves to give kisses.  Wet, slobbery kisses.

I still can't believe that my sweet little babe is turning into a little man so quickly!

a taste of fall

Happy first day of fall!  And finally it's starting to feel like fall.  For me, fall is the most wonderful time of the year (cue Johnny Mathis).  I love everything about it.  The crisp cool air, the colours of red, orange, yellow and purple, the cozy fall wardrobe and of course the comfort food.  Seriously if I could have the months of September through to the end of December and that be it ... I'd be fine.   A few nights ago I decided to break out one of my favourite fall recipes, apple crisp.  To me this is the ideal fall comfort food.  It looks like, smells like and ... for me, tastes like fall.

Apple Crisp

6 to 8 apples

pinch of cinnamon

1 tbsp(ish) brown sugar

dash of cornstarch

For topping:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oats

1/2 flour

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes and enjoy ...

I just feel all cozy now : )

mountain casual

Well, I didn't really intend for a week long blog vacation.  It just sorta' happened that way.  Not in a bad way ... but I just didn't find any time last week to even look at blogs let alone write something fabulous for my own.  We've been really busy lately.  More than normal.  Perhaps I'm just noticing it a little more now that I work all week.  I have become a weekend warrior, and this weekend was jam packed.  Rob and I took Saturday night off to head out to the mountains for a wedding.  Liam spent some quality time with Gramma B, aka time to get spoiled and have some fun!  We've only been away from Liam twice overnight since he was born.  Is that weird?  I'm not sure.  I do know that I really really really missed him, but was super happy to sleep in passed 7:30 am.  And I was even more happy to have some adult couple time that didn't involve conversations about the contents of a diaper.  (seriously this is a frequent topic of conversation ... if you're a parent I know you know)

Anyways, the wedding of our good friends, Kim and Mike, was fantastic!  The weather held off for the outdoor ceremony.  The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome.  We were in good company, the food was delicious and the drinks were a flowin'.   It was a fabulous day and a great way to spend a fall weekend.  One thing to note, I have never been to a wedding where the dress code was Mountain Casual.   Wasn't quite sure what that meant.  Jeans and lumberjack shirt?  Lulu's and sneakers?  Who knows?  At any rate here's my interpretation of "mountain casual."

sweater ~ esprit

belt ~ husband's 

leggings ~ h & m

boots ~ aerosole

bag ~ nine west

Linking up with these fabulous ladies ...

hello september sponsors

I'm hoping that all you lovely readers noticed that we have sponsors.  Hurray!!  I've decided to jump on the sponsor swap band wagon ... it's full of awesome people don't ya know.  And a few of them are hangin' out on our blog for the month of September.   Make sure you check out these fantastic ladies!

Gillian from Building Bumps

Hello! I'm so excited to be here at MJ's blog this month : ) I'm Gillian, a part time photographer, a full time mama to my awesome little dude, and an all-the-time blogger! My ruggedly handsome hubby-to-be Dr. Nails and I lived in a wikidly tiny house on the eastern Canadian sea shore. That was before the Little Bit came along and changed all the rules. Now we're working on a big addition to our sea side shack while building our rocking little family. Our blog Building Bumps is full of kick ass photos, heaps of baby goodness, some serious trend setting, and a few un-fartsy artsy moments! Hope you'll pop by!

Melissa from Knit Purl Baby

Stay-at-home mama to the sweetest baby boy. Awesome fiancee to the best dude ever. Expert yarn wrangler. These would all be acceptable definitions next to a picture of me in the dictionary. I love to blog about the daily adventures of my little family, crafty time, wedding planning and my weight loss journey. The star of my blog is my son John Charles, but his friends call him JC. He's amazing and pretty much the best baby (or toddler now, I guess) ever. If I do say so myself. I've just opened my etsy shop Aquamarine where I sell vintage housewares and hand-knit (by yours truly) home decor. Check us out on facebook, twitter (blog, shop), and pinterest!

Chandra from A Stylish Little Lady

I'm Chandra...a southern girl and soul partner to a lovable boy I met online and proud mama of the best doggie ever. I spend my days working in the world of marketing while daydreaming of anything creative, beautiful, and fun. I'm an advocate of things handmade and unique and love to experience different cultures, great food, music, and art. Stop by my little bloggy and visit sometime. I'd love to have you over. You'll find a little bit of everything, along with some personal tidbits about me {just recently engaged} and some pretty unique stuff. So take a peek and join along with me in my random mess and chaotic bliss...a place where I can remember and scribble about the things I love.

mountain mosey

Long weekends are all about fun.  Fun with friends.  Fun with family.  Fun in the sun.  And fun in the mountains.  This weekend was no exception.  After a very productive Saturday (check it out here) we made plans with some outta' town friends to go hang out in Banff, wander around, have some lunch (great food at the Wild Flower Bakery) and go for a mini hike.  It was exactly what I wanted to do on Sunday.  The weather has been amazing ... I think we're headed for an indian summer (my favourite, because it's fall, only warmer).  Seriously people it's been hotter here in the last few days then it ever was in July or August!  Hopefully it'll stick around and we'll get a few more weekends in the mountains just like this one.