life {lately} ~ vol. 29

last week was spring break.  minus the spring part.

we had nothing but snow all week.

terrible.  pretty sure that everyones completely finished with winter.

bring on the sun, flowers, bugs, anything but snow.

so instead of playing outside on the grass in the sunshine, we ...

went to the science centre and explored.

bought colourful tulips.

made green pancakes and green cheesy noodles on st. patrick's day.

willed welcomed spring on the chalkboard.

made silly faces, chocolate faces and played with mama's glasses.

got a pink potty for the moo.  just as an introduction.

ordered absinthe tickets for our girls trip to vegas.  mid-april can't come soon enough.

got a new mat for the front door, fits us perfectly.

and built a few lego robots.

it's snowed all day today and feels more like winter than spring.

fingers and toes are crossed that our seemingly never ending winter will end.  

soon.

hope you had a great spring break if you were off.

if not, then hope it was a non-snowy weekend.

twenty fourteen goals updated

three and a half months into twenty fourteen and it's time to have a look at my goals for the year.  i'm really glad that i wrote these things down, then shared them with all of you, because it's forced me to be a more accountable.  i'm really trying to not make excuses when it comes to going for a run.  i always regret not going for a run and never regret it when i do.  my brother and i are talking about maybe doing a half marathon this fall.  we'll see.  i'm half way to my book reading goal, and if i count decor, decorating and design books than i've exceeded my goal.

and i'm adding one new thing to this list.  i've finally registered to start my interior design certificate and i start the program in may.  if i'm able to complete a course a semester, including spring, then i'm hoping to finish the program by the end of winter semester twenty sixteen.  i'm really looking forward to going back to school, it'll make life a little more hectic, but in my heart i know it'll be worth it in the end.

also, something that's totally goal unrelated.  a good friend of mine was reading young house love on friday and she saw that sherry and john chose to share my ombre wall post on their forum foursome.  so, um, yeah.  that's pretty freaking cool and "hello" to everyone stopping by.

twenty fourteen goals updates

~  run more, and run in the 10 km mothers day race. (running three times a week now, and only five weeks until my first 10 k race, hoping to complete it in 70 minutes or less)
~  read four books this year.  think i only read two last year. (read mocking jay and finally finished bossy pants, so freaking funny)
~  spend more time unplugged.  no phone, computer or my device, the iPad. (working on this one)
~  date my husband once a month ... even if it's an at home date.
~  see friends more often.

~  complete all most some of the following projects, in no particular order: sew mudroom bench cushion (fabric and foam are now on hand), paint ombré walls in breakfast nook, wallpaper photo wall upstairs, stencil feature wall in playroom, make cushion covers for pillows in family room and basement, paint dining room, paint garage entry door, cookie jar project, spray our dresser in the master bedroom, install cedar wall in the master bathroom, tile back splash and install cupboards in laundry room, put in photo ledges in office and playroom, make giant chalkboard for the backyard, make potting bench (this is actually one of rob's projects), put together blog books for the last three years (actually working on our 2013 family yearbook using iPhoto and it's almost done.  going to start 2012 soon), and any other projects that jump into my brain.  

~  print more photos for our frames and rotate them more frequently. (this ones gonna be on going)
~  have more fun and quite worrying about everything else. (and so's this one)
~  start interior design certificate: first course intro to interior design.  not sure if i'm more excited to get the list of school supplies i need or to go to my first class.  yeah that's right, this girl gets seriously excited for school supplies.  nothing beats the smell of freshly sharpened pencils.

have a good wednesday.

we're off to the science centre on this cold and snowy "spring" day.

room to sleep ~ before & sort of after

right from the beginning of our house build, both rob and i paid close attention to how our master bedroom and bathroom were put together.  we really wanted to have a space for us.  our old house had an ensuite, great windows, but lacked space ... especially bathroom and closet space.  so, as a result we wanted to ensure that our new master bedroom had all of those things with more space.  wish granted.  our master has not one, but two closets.  large one for me and a smaller one for rob ... i have a problem that involves shoes following me home.  and clothes.  and jewelry.  it also has a pretty sweet bathroom.  i'll share later.  about the only upgrade we did in the bedroom was adding a vaulted ceiling.  not a large vault and it was totally worth it.  definitely makes the room feel open.  we like open spaces.

other than upgrading our lamps before we took possession, we haven't really done anything to our room since we moved in.  mostly because we wanted to spend our money on more important things like blinds.  hello neighbour.  now we can start upgrading some of the items a little further down on our list.  a couple weeks ago rob and i purchased a new mattress (this one and it' kinda awesome), a king, and it meant that we also would need a new frame.  and while we're at it, new night stands.  the new bed and night tables totally change the room.  love it so much!

we've only got a couple photos from construction.  again, we were just more concerned with other parts of the house during the build.

and this is the way our bedrooms been for the last year and a half.  honestly i didn't think the room looked that bad.   but in these photos, i now think it looks terrible.  could be a combination of bad lighting (took these as the sun was setting), my new found disdain for our bedroom set (we got a really good deal on it when we first moved in together) and that we were expecting new furniture that we loved to arrive.  i mean that's a lotta reddish brown.

it seems that we really liked brown in our other home.  which is alright i guess, it's just not our taste now.  also the furniture feels very heavy, big and out of place.  we've been struggling with furniture placement as well and now that we've added some new stuff and are getting ready to paint and wallpaper we're going to try a few different layouts.  draw them out or move furniture around.  we'd welcome any suggestions for the dresser, mirror, chair and bookcase placement. 

anyways, here's what we're transforming it into: 

(thanks to rob and liam for putting the furniture together while averie and i had a dance party)

bed//night tables//lamps

i love how much lighter the room feels.  it's more open and is definitely more us.  the kids also love it.  mostly because they're all about flopping on/crawling on/snuggling in the giant new bed.  speaking of bed, when our mattress arrived we noticed something weird.  it was square ... 76 x 76.  we called sleep country and let them know.  they thought it was weird too.  after a couple emailed photos and phone conversations (sleep country was totally great about the whole thing) i'm happy to report that a new rectangular mattress is on its way today.  manufacturer said it was a defective mattress.  no worries. 

and as per usual we have generated a list of things we like to add/change:

~  wallpaper feature wall behind the bed with this.  this is the project i'm looking forward to the most.

~  paint the entire room, maybe a very light grey or white with a grey undertone.  not sure?

~  thinking of spraying the dresser a dark blue and adding new brass/gold hardware or find a new dresser.

~  we moved the chest at the end of our old bed to the basement. i want to make it into a dress up tickle trunk for the kids. (get that mr. dress up reference?)

~  we need some greenery in the room, not sure if we're going real or fake.  the last real plant we had in our room almost died because i kept forgetting to water it.  it's currently dying in the basement.

~  get more frames for our gallery wall.  print out some of our black and white photos.

~  we need new bedding: king sized duvet, cover and some king pillows.  maybe sew some covers for throw pillows.

  

...... ahhhhhhhhhh.

eighteen {ish}

averie's eighteen months and beyond.  that means she's almost two ... in five months, so almost.  i clearly remember liam at this age.  wasn't that like just the other day?   i remember things like how it was so much easier than when he was a baby and that he and i slept through the night.  averie's pretty much the same with a more independent streak than him.  she's game to try everything.  and fearless.  like trying to walk down the stairs facing forward without holding on to anything with little legs that don't reach the next step fearless.  and she's utterly, completely, beyond adorable.  even when she's having a fit she's adorable.  she's very warm hearted and empathetic.  whenever liam's in a timeout or he's upset and crying, she'll get him scruffy and jammies and says "mmmm-kay?" to make him feel better.  it's so cute.  and she's amazing and amazes me every moment.  everything is brand new and exciting.  both her and her brother remind me that.  the sense of wonder, fun, emotion and crazy.  all at the same time.

eighteen month averie stats

~  makes animal noises for: cow, horse, sheep, dog, monkey, lion, cat, dinosaur and duck

~  says: juice, na-na (banana), apo (apple), straw-bee (strawberry), me-me (liam), mama, da-dee, hair, hand, shoe, sock, shirt, pretty, sticky (sticker), up, out, down, no, pees (please), ugg (hug), bo-bear, baby, mmm-kay? (asking if you're okay), ba ba (bedtime bottle), car, cheese, orange, ree-ree (averie), jor-ja (her friend at daycare), dye (bye) while waving, night night and jammies.  

~  plays independently.  she's totally good with playing by herself and keeping her self entertained.  

~  love love loves to read.  she frequently goes missing when we're at home and we'll find her in her room in the rocking chair with four or five books on top of her and she's reading.  

~  still loves bo-bear, but baby has recently moved into the picture.  averie carries her around everywhere.  she tries to feed her and change her diaper.

~  loves to pretend.  she's always on a play phone or a calculator talking to "da-dee", "grammie", or "mama".  she also will put on her purse and say "dye", wave and nod yes when you ask her if she's going "shop shop".  

~  wearing twelve to eighteen month, eighteen month, and some eighteen to twenty-four month clothing.  i've kept some of her tank top dresses from last summer and they're fitting her as tops.  those are six to twelve month.  she's a teeny tiny girl.  

~  averie's become a pretty good eater and has started feeding herself with a spoon and fork.  a lot of it ends up on her or the floor but she's still game to do it herself.  love it.  

~  follows liam around like a shadow sometimes.  she wants to do what he does and she gets frustrated when she can't.  

~  one of the best things is that she's started telling us that she's poopy or poop poop.  as far as we can tell she usually does it right after she's peed or when she's about to poop.  this is freaking wicked.  i'm hoping that within the next nine months she'll be potty trained and we'll be a diaper free house!

~  she's completely fascinated obsessed with the moose that have been visiting our backyard.  every time we go to the window or go on the deck she follows asking "moo moo moo?"  it's super adorable and love that she can watch nature at it's best in her own backyard.  

we love you sweet girl

xoxo

life {lately} ~ vol. 28

thank goodness for sunshine and it almost being spring.

things are finally starting to thaw and i swear i can actually see buds on our trees.

maybe its just my imagination. 

or perhaps wishful thinking.

whatever, spring is officially here on the weekend and we couldn't be more excited. 

hanging out on the deck and playing all day in the yard is just mere weeks away.

until then, here's a snip it of what we've been up to.

our artist in residence has been furiously creating abstract art and underwater ocean scenes.

averie's decided that ironman frequently requires diaper changes.

we hung a curtain rod in the kitchen.  sadly we don't have curtains.  but we have a rod.

some rad dude went skiing with his dad, he's becoming a little pro.

i got crafty and spray painted some frames.  it was a fail.

meh, that's okay.  you win some and you lose some.  this time i lost.

loving all the fresh colourful flowers.

a pancake, bouncy house playdate with our neighbours.

liam picked out new posters for his room, ironman and ninja turtles made the cut.  

this kid loves his "big boy" room.

chicky cheese and crackers for a school snack.

and a little peek-a-moo.

hope your weekend was warm and sunny.

get outside

ugggggghhhhh.  we've been cooped up in our house for months weeks forever.  it's been the longest, coldest winter that i remember having in a long long long time.  and it started freaking early.  we've still got a massive snow pile separating our driveway from the neighbours and it's been so effing cold.  minus forty with wind chill.  wtf?  it's only allowed to be that cold in february.  and for like a day.  the end.

apparently mother nature overheard my weather cursing because within the last five days we've had a thirty degree temperature increase.  good timing because i think all of us were going a little cray cray.  we tossed on some rubber boots and went hunting for puddles.  so nice to be outside, enjoy the sun and not have your nose hairs or eyelashes freeze.  hope it sticks around for awhile good.

hope you had a fantastic weekend too!

liamisms ~ vol. 5

i swear the more i listen to liam talk the more i find myself giggling.  he's so serious now when he's telling us a story about something that happened in his day.  whether it actually happened or he's playing pretend.  and he's also becoming a major big brother to averie, scrap that, he's trying to be her parent.  both rob and i find ourselves telling him to stop being the mommy or the daddy and to be her big brother.  despite all that, it's super awesome to see him care so much about her.  and averie just eats it up.

but back to the world according to liam.

"when i was a baby a long time ago, i wore bows."

"i love toe nail stark."  (talking about tony stark and ironman)

"mommy, i could poop every morning."

"we can't stomp around in the snow.  it will make the snow come back and snow on us."

"i knew i was hungry.  that's why you should give me food."

"mommy is mari-jane, mari-jane is mommy and mommy's the boss."

me: it's getting cold outside.
liam:  yeah, my brain is freezing.

"my girlfriend is bits and james."  (both of his cousins)

at breakfast the other morning he was staring at his bowl of cereal and said this:
"oooooooooooo, it's so carbonated."

what a guy.  love him to pieces.

life {lately} ~ vol. 27

almost a month since i last dumped my phone pics.

it's been super duper cold here.

like minus forty with the wind chill cold.

um, isn't it march??

we're pretty much done with the cold, i could do with some spring.

and although it's been effing freezing, life has continued to be crazy and fun.

coffee, blog reading and cameras.

hunting for new bedding for liam.

finished the mudroom bench cushions, with the exception of the added the velcro.

guess that only makes them mostly, almost, 95% finished.

another family road trip ski weekend.  this time to fernie.

beer time.

completed our first attempt at hanging wallpaper.  more on this later.

canada flag art during the olympics and some olympic hockey watching at work.

new art on the wall in the pantry.

reading stories and putting diapers on baby dolls and bo-bear.