day 60 - leap year

So today we got an extra day in the year, something that happens only every four years. Pretty big! So what do you take a picture of?

The power outage at work? Yup, around 2:15 the power went out! Not just at work either. It was almost city wide, including some surrounding areas, like my in-laws who live 45 minutes away!! It wasn't just out for a few minutes, it was out for approx. 3 hours, longer for some people! Lucky for us, the power at home never went out! It was a long drive home though because all the stop lights were out!

I didn't take any pictures to document the power outage, probably because I didn't stay at work much longer after it went out.  

Than I thought, what is the one thing that is likely to change the most in another four years?

The answer, the girls.

They will change the most. Right now ages 5 and 3 and in four years ages 9 and 7. Yikes!!

It's not easy to get these two sitting together like this! I had to bribe them with smarties :)

It was worth it to get one like this! Such beautiful little girls :)

And just like Mommy said, they got their smarties!

And somehow Alyssa got a sucker too!

 

The other thing I did was their hand prints! I regret not doing their hand prints more when they were smaller, so I've getting them to stamp their hand prints a lot more often these days! I have a plan for these photos and hand prints :) I'll share when I am done!

After the paint dried I scanned these. I don't know why I never thought to scan them before!! Because now I can include their hand prints in our Project Life album!! How cool is that!

day 59 - project life arrived

I was so excited last night when I checked the mail and there was a card saying I had a parcel at the post office! I knew exactly what it would be...my Project Life order!!

Being that I am doing Project Life digitally, I don't really need any physical product. So what I am going to use all this product for? A few different things.

The first thing I want to do is finally put all the family history stuff I've been collecting into one book!! I have big hopes for this project and I hope it turns out the way I am envisioning it in my head!

The other thing I am using the photo protectors for is the girls "paper" stuff, like pictures they've drawn, etc. I got a lot of inspiration from watching Becky's video a few weeks ago about getting organized with your kids' stuff. It made me feel good to know that I am not alone in trying to figure this all out. And if you haven't heard, Becky will be releasing products geared towards childhood/school by the end of this summer, early fall!! Can't wait!!

Of course I had to get a picture of me holding a Becky Project Life box :)

day 58 - getting dinner ready

This year I am really trying to think outside the box when it comes to capturing my daily photos. One way I've been doing this is by using my timer so that I end up in the photos.

Tonight we were all working together to get dinner made, Jason is peeling potatos to have with our meat loaf and Cayla and I were making banana muffins. Alyssa was the only one not at the island doing something and that's because she was doing her home fun at the kitchen table. But as soon as she heard the beeping of the camera she ran over to be in the picture! Love it!!! I can already tell that this is going to be a family favourite for years!! Need to capture more moments like this!

I can only hope that both my girls will want to help cook and bake when they get older. Right now it's just fun for them. Cayla is at the perfect age of wanting to always help.

day 57 - a lazy sunday

This morning I was off to get my bandages changed. I left and everyone seemed okay, but when I returned Cayla was at the front door with her boots on and crying for me. Apparently, she lost it after I left and was pretty much crying the entire hour I was gone.When I got home she was on her way outside to find me! It's a good thing I got home when I did. Poor thing!

I love how when Jason tries to get a nap in without anyone noticing, the girls always ambush him! Here Alyssa is actually giving him a heart she made him. Every since Valentine's Day she's been making us Valentine cards. It's sweet. I already got mine earlier in the day. 

day 56 - winter storm a day late

We were supposed to be dumped on with freezing rain and snow yesterday (Friday) but instead we woke up to this on Saturday morning! This really is nothing considering the mild winter we've had. It's been so mild and we've had very little snow. Jason hasn't even used the snow blower once this winter!!

It would've been the perfect day to stay inside and not venture out but I had to have my bandage changed, which meant driving to the city! We were all going so that we could do some shopping afterwards.

A special treat was going out for lunch at Montana's. The girls had a blast honking the horn of the big red truck. Each Montana's restaurant has a real size truck inside and some of them still have working parts, like the horn! They got their lunches delivered in these cool paper trucks!

day 54 - enjoying the past

What can I say, seeing a photo like this one makes my heart smile. I love when the girls, usually Alyssa asks to look at the many scrapbooks and photo books I've made. Today she wanted to see the book from 2009. As we were looking through it, I thought I should snap a picture, so I put my camera on the floor and set the timer and this is what I got.

While looking through the month of October she saw a picture of her wearing her butterfly costume. She has had this costume since before Cayla was born. She figured it would still fit!! Sure she squeezed into but it's clearly too small for her! She insisted on wearing it though!

 

 Than Cayla got a turn wearing it. It was nice to see Alyssa help Cayla into it and do it up for her.

I have countless pictures of each of them in this butterfly costume.

day 53 - mommy has a boo boo

Last night Jason had to changed the bandage on my shoulder. This would be my first look at it after having the cyst removed that morning. When I saw it, I was a bit freaked out! Why? Because I knew the Doctor had packed it with gauze and I knew that gauze would have to come out and new stuff would need to go in!! Ouch! I had no idea what to expected and being that today would be my first time having it changed, I wasn't looking forward to it.

Alyssa didn't like seeing her Mommy upset, so she drew me a picture to help cheer me up! I LOVE this picture!! I've already put it away for safe keeping :) This is priceless to me! After she gave it to me she gave me a big hug and told me it would be okay! Love. her. to. pieces. :)

 I worked from home today. For one, there wasn't much I could wear that didn't bother my shoulder. I've pretty much been wearing tank tops with my pink hoodie.

In the afternoon, I had my first bandage changing. I was very nervous! The nurse who did it was fabulous and made me feel relaxed. Now that I've been going for over a week, I have to say the first one was probably the easiest and least painful! Some of the ones since than have been terrible!! I get that they need to clean it, sometimes express more cyst out and repack it each time, but I am human and I can feel it!!

It's going to be a very slow process. Now (March 4) I am still having daily bandage changes and there is still more infection and cyst matter coming out. The good news is they are starting to see it healing at the bottom of the wound. It has to heal from the bottom up.

 This is when I wish I had taken a picture of the cyst (covered) before it was removed so that I could show the difference in size. It stuck out about an inch from my back and was about an inch long. So glad it's gone! I can't wait until I can have the rest of it removed and finally be done with all of this!

day 52 - pancake tuesday

I was off to the hospital today to hopefully be seen by an ER doctor about my cyst. We got there around 10:00 and I was in to see a Doctor about an hour and a half later. She was great, except the part when she caused me pain! But it was necessary and I am glad I went.

The cyst on my shoulder had become so infected and was just downright gross!! To think I have had this cyst for about five years and it never caused me any pain. It wasn't small by any means before, about the size of a quarter and it was slightly raised from my shoulder. But now it was the size of a golf ball. I thought about taking a picture to compare the size, but I didn't. From the side it looked like I had a bone sticking out of my shoulder blade! I was in so much pain because it had swelled up and it was draining some nasty stuff. It was awful. Thankfully Jason has been great at helping me and being my nurse and changing the bandages. He was grossed out by it just as much as I was, but he was great. Even the ER nurse commented on how well he did on putting the bandage on.

The ER doctor was quick and told me she would freeze it and remove what she could of the cyst. Yikes!!! The needles to freeze it are what hurt the most. Ouch!! After the freezing kicked in I didn't feel much. She removed most of the cyst but wasn't able to get it all. When she told me she was packing it and that I would need to get daily bandage changes I didn't have a clue what that meant. All I knew was that when I sat up, the bump was somewhat gone and I had a huge bandage across my shoulder! The best part was my shoulder was frozen so I was no longer in pain!! That was the first time in over a week, it felt good not to feel it!

I left the ER thankful that the pain was gone but scared about what was ahead for me. I would later come to realize that the end was no where in sight for me and it would be a longer road to recovery than I thought!

My pictures from today obviously don't reflect the ordeal I went through. I did debate on taking a picture of the ER room after all was said and done, but I didn't. I doubt I'll forget about today any time soon and I don't need a reminder of how painful it was!

Instead, I took pictures of the happier times in the day. After we left the ER, we got lunch at Tim Hortons. Roll up the rim just started and lucky Jason won his first free coffee!!

 It was Pancake Tuesday which meant we had pancakes for supper! Yummy!

day 51 - family day

It's nice to have a long weekend. Thank goodness for Family Day! It's just too bad I wasn't up to enjoying the day with my family. I was in pain from my infected cyst on my shoulder, therefore it made it hard to even put a sweater on, let alone a jacket!

I did spend some quiet time while eating my breakfast to read my new magazine, Seeing the Everyday. I thought this quote was perfect for today, "daily family mealtime is critical to children's physical, emotional and social development". I could not agree more!

A few of the stories that are shared in this issue reflect on mealtime. For one woman, she found that she wanted a different experience for her kids than she had growing up. Because mealtime should be a time to come together and share with one another and enjoy good food, etc. There is a time for teaching our children to have proper manners too, but it shouldn't be stressful. I had Jason read one of the articles because I felt it was an important message for him as the Dad in the family to understand that mealtime with little ones is different and messes are okay :) We have always sat together as a family to eat dinner. Than on weekends we sit together to have breakfast and lunch too! It's something I was raised doing. We always came together for mealtime.It's the one time in the day we can all come together to talk about our day and be face-to-face without any distractions. During breakfast and lunch the tv might be on in the background, but for dinnertime it goes off. Our mealtimes are usually fun, unless someone isn't eating their dinner and when that happens I always say, "You get what you get and you don't get upset". It's from the Pinkalicious books that Alyssa's likes. I think I'll be framing both of these quote and hanging in our kitchen :)

For lunch today, I made the girls rice cake faces again. This time I used marshmallows for the eyes with M&Ms. Pretty much the entire thing was made using candy compared to when I've made it with all fruit. And guess what? Cayla didn't eat anything except the chocolate and of course the rice cake with peanut butter. I guess she prefers when it's fruit, which is good :)

After lunch, Jason took the girls over to the park behind our house to do some sledding and to play in what little snow we have. I REALLY wish I could've joined them, but I couldn't even get a coat on due to the cyst being so large and painful!! Instead I had to watch from inside and snap a few pictures. Hopefully tomorrow when I go to the ER, they'll be able to do something, as it's been a week now and the antibiotics aren't doing anything for me!

day 50 - birthday party

Jason took the girls to a birthday party for our babysitter's son. It was his first birthday! I was supposed to go too but I wasn't feeling so great, more about why in another post. They were only supposed to be gone for about an hour, but it turned out they were at the party until almost the end. Why? The girls wanted cake!

They just love this little boy! Alyssa especially has a soft spot for him. It's cute to watch him come crawling to greet them in the morning. He always has such a big smile. Than at the end of the day they like to hug him good bye.

Alyssa was so happy that she could finally have one of the tractor chocolates! I guess she helped put these, along with a bunch of other stuff in all the loot bags!

day 49 - visit to the grandparents

Today we were off to see the grandparents. The girls always have a great time with Grandma and Grandad. To think that this is the house their Daddy grew up in and here they are now colouring at the kitchen table, just like he probably did when he was their age!

My mother-in-law was busy at the stove making bacon roll for Jason. It's his favourite. A recipe that his Grandma passed onto his Mom. It's not something I ever had before meeting Jason. It's hard to describe what it is, as I couldn't find any recipes online. Basically, it's bacon and spices rolled up inside dough. It's wrapped in cheese cloth and cooked on top of the stove using water. It takes a long time to cook, as it's cooked at a low temperature. I should've taken a picture of it, maybe next time. We weren't sure the girls would like it. Boy, were we wrong, they LOVED it!! I barely got any on their plates and they were asking for more!!

The girls have warmed up to Brandi, my in-laws dog. They still aren't 100% sure of her all the time, but they do like to chase her around and even get down to pet her. Brandi loves them too, as you can see she is rubbing her face on Cayla while Cayla pets her.

day 48 - a gift

I had a wonderful gift show up in my mailbox today. It was my first issue of the magazine, Seeing the everyday. It's a gift subscription from Becky Higgins! How nice is she?!

The magazine is filled with amazing stories about everyday life, especially those moments spent at home with family. This issue made me recall a lot of wonderful memories from my childhood. The magazine doesn't have any advertising, therefore the focus is on the stories and the photos, just like it should be! It's very simple yet quite amazing! It made me what to document more childhood stories of my own, but also those of my family.

Thanks Becky for this amazing gift!!

day 47 - a classic

Toy Story 1, 2 or 3 is watched at least once a week in our house! The girls just love these movies. Tonight they wanted to watch number two. I think this one probably gets watched more than all the others.

In other news, today Alyssa's class visited the senior home. The kids sang songs for the residents there. Tonight I had her sing them for us so I could record her. She said she had lots of fun and that they had yummy snacks for her! The days leading up to going she kept saying she was going to go sing to the old people! LOL

day 46 - daddy can sew??

Yes, girls it's true, your Daddy can sew! He likes to think he can anyway! LOL

He can't make clothes or anything like that, but neither can your Mommy but he can sew a button or two. What he is good at doing is fixing things! Daddy is the one the you go to when a toy needs to be fixed. If it's not tape or crazy glue he is using, it's a needle and thread!

Tonight he had to repair Alyssa's monkey because the arm was coming off!! He is only a day old and already falling apart! As Daddy would say, "What a cheap toy!". Girls, you will come to realize that your Daddy doesn't like it when things aren't "almost" perfect. He has been known to inspect clothes and toys before purchasing them!! He wants to make sure he gets the best one!!

Daddy got out his bag of thread to find just the right colour and in no time the little monkey was all better!

Way to go Daddy! You're the best!!

day 45 - happy valentine's day

Alyssa has been looking forward to Valentine's Day for weeks! What was she looking forward to the most? Everything! She knows that she gets chocolate and a stuffy :) Oh and of course some stickers are always fun too!

 Daddy spoiled his girls this year by getting them two new stuffy's to add to their collection. A Hello Kitty...

 and a monkey that makes kissing noises. He is probably their favourite!

Alyssa had a class party and I had a potluck lunch at work, so I made lots of these yummy goodies! Pretzel hugs! Super easy to make with a pretzel, a Hershey hug and smarties!

Alyssa was super excited to go through all her Valentine cards and treats from her friends. She treasures all this stuff SO much!! She'll carry this stuff around in this bag for weeks! Once she tires of doing that, I'll be sure to take some of her favourite cards and put them aside to include in her scrapbook album.

day 44 - all ready for Valentine's

These are the cute treat bags that the girls will be giving to their friends at the babysitters.

 And these are the treat bags Alyssa will be giving to her friends at school.

 I printed off this cute sign and hung it up on the wall at our front entrance. Need to do this more often!

day 43 - a crafty sunday

I had big plans today, but none of them involved getting out of our pjs too early :) I think the girls would stay in their pjs all day if I let them!

Once we were dressed, it didn't take long for Cayla to put on her tutu. I also have to say how much I love her in pigtails. I would put them in everyday if she didn't end up taking them out about half way through the day!! She's also still very much in the little Mommy mode and wanting to change her dolly's diaper.

Alyssa is in the rings and bracelets and collecting stuff stage!

Of course I love Cayla's shirt! I bought it a month or so ago now and almost forgot I had it for her. It was perfect for today, as we were going to be doing Valentine crafts!

The first thing on the list of crafty things to do was the girl's Valentine cards. Ones for Alyssa's class and than a few for the kids they get babysat with.

Alyssa sat and wrote her name on every single card for her friends.

Cayla was helping me stuff the treat bags, but in the midst of helping she grabbed a box of smarties for herself! I caught her in the act, hence the look on her face! LOL It was okay, we had lots :)

I even made sure to get me in a picture. We made a good team. Alyssa would write out the cards than Cayla would put the card, a box of smarties and two kisses in the bag and I would tie it.

The girls were making cards out to each other. I love how Cayla tried to write her name, along with Alyssa's. She made a few letters by herself, but in the end Alyssa helped her out. It won't be long before she's writing her name like a pro too.

Jason came home with flowers. How sweet. He knows I am not much of a flower person, but I do love gerber daises :)

And Cayla figured Daddy brought home the bag of brownies for her to eat!

The first craft of the afternoon involved tissue paper and glue. The girls loved it! Cayla was pretty quick at finishing hers. But Alyssa probably took two hours to do hers. Why? She's very particular and likes to do everything just right! I thought I was going to run out of tissue paper! LOL

 Cayla was very proud of her heart, as was I. She did a really good job!

 
The hand tree with pink leaves was fun too. I love doing anything that involves them using their hand prints.

Cayla was super proud of her creation. It's funny because her hand print was close in size to Alyssa's!

I wasn't sure Alyssa would ever move on to doing her hand tree because she was still doing her heart. I think the next time I want to keep her occupied for two hours I'll give her another one of these hearts to make!

Alyssa finally moved onto her hand tree, which was a good thing as it was almost dinner!

Alyssa was super proud of her tissue heart. She should be because it looked amazing!! There is no doubt that this girl is a crafty one!