Easter and Spring

We had an awesome Easter this year! Mister M loved it, and even D-Man got in on the action lol.
We did the egg hunt, and Mister-M had a treasure hunt for his gifts. Got to get outside and take some pictures too which was nice! Then for dinner we celebrated my baby sisters 18th birthday with some Shabu-Shabu and icecream cake!

(Shabu-Shabu is an asian dish which involves a simmering pot of seasoned broth in the middle of the table, and then bowls of ingredients like meat, vegetables, seafood raw on the side. You take the toppings, put them in a spider cooker (a little baskety thing) and cook it in the broth and then put it on top of some rice it's delicious).













Our spring photo shoot didn't happen, the weather was rainy and D-Man had been throwing up the day before so we're going to reschedule for a later date.
I've been getting more and more involved with different groups on the internet. My latest one is The Leaky B@@b on Facebook. It's a breastfeeding support/information group and it's just so amazing to know that there are people out there who nurse for as long as I do or longer, and love it as much. It's also nice to be able to give support and advice to those who need it too. I'm still really involved with the deal of the day sites, and have started to be involved with kidcrawl.com a site where mom's/dad's can rate and review different products and research things they might want to buy. It's been pretty helpful at times for sure.
We don't really have much planned for this week, Mister M's class is having a bake sale in support of Pedal for Hope (cancer research) on Wednesday so I've got to figure what we're going to make for it thats nut and egg free.


D-Man has pulled himself up to a full stand this week too! He's growing up so fast it's crazy. He still isn't crawling, but is starting to get on his knees a bit more, and is scootching along the floor on his bum to get to different toys and things, so we'll see if he walks or crawls first!

Milestones

I'm thinking about trying to post once a week. I had all good intentions of posting more often but I've evidently failed lol. My life is just too boring at the moment I suppose. So starting now I'm going to try to post something new every Monday and see how well I do with that.
Onto todays post!!!
So we've reached some milestones around here, Mister M is reading all the time now, and is learning to tie his shoes (he's only had velcro until now due to the styles being cooler lol). He's also started to pick up after himself without being asked!!! D-Man can clap his hands, sit on his own, pull up to sitting, go from sitting to laying on his tummy without bonking his head and can say a few words "hi, papa, baaa (which means ball) and broovverrr (which means brother)". Brother was his first word actually, he still hasn't said Mama yet though :(

So it's easter weekend this weekend, we don't do much normally but this year it's going to be busy. We're heading down to Toronto on Saturday for a photoshoot (weather permitting)so I'm trying to figure out outfits for us all to wear. Something that looks good together, doesn't make me look pregnant still and is durable enough to survive the train trip down and the subway there. I'll head out to H&M and Old Navy tomorrow and see what I can find I suppose.
We're also doing my sisters 18th birthday dinner on the Sunday, and then maybe Easter dinner on the Friday or Monday (lasagna again this year I think). For the egg hunt I've got some pretty awesome ideas. I'm going to take those plastic eggs and fill them up with different things for the boys, candy, small toys, washcloths, loonies stuff like that. Mister M doesn't eat very much candy (just threw out his halloween stuff yesterday actually) so it's a waste to hide only chocolate. It should be fun!

Pictures!

We've had our professional pictures taken yet again!
We went in for some spring time photo's, and because D-Man is 6 months (well he's 7 months now but was 6 at the time the pictures were taken). They look pretty good! I am not photogenic in the least so it's nice to see that my boys are. Here are the shots!


We're also going to Toronto at the end of the month for a photo shoot with D.P Photography. A friend of mine discovered her when we were all pregnant, and since then a few of us have used her services. I'm excited to see how they all turn out. I've never done anything other than a studio shoot, and we're doing an outdoor, spring shoot at the UofT campus, so it should be alot of fun!


So I'm thinking of starting up my own business, I've got an idea, and possibly the means to make it possible. I've just got a few more things to figure out, and some experiments to do and then I'll be ready to launch. I don't want to say too much about it, but after looking around I don't see anything like what I want to do out there, which might be good or bad lol. Is it just not available because no one has thought of it, or is it not available because no one wants it? We'll see I suppose. And since my original investment will be more time than money I don't think it will be a huge loss to have it fail. Hopefully it won't though and I'll get some extra money to do some fun things with my boys! We'll see.

I've actually won a free logo design through babyheist.com. If you're a Canadian parent, or even just like deals on cool baby items you should check it out, they're based in Burlington Ontario and provide a deal a day on some super awesome items. Anyways they had an 8000 fan contest on Facebook and I entered a bunch of draws and the prize I won was a free logo design by Digital Designs by Renée, so I'm waiting to hear back from them about that, and then I think I'll be able to get a design for my new business! Pretty awesome eh?

Meh...

So as anyone who reads my blog knows I'm pretty boring. I stay at home with my boys, I'm poor, I'm not yet finished school, I love math, I don't drink, smoke or party, I'm dull.
But it has its benefits. As of today, I have 0 credit card debt (I do have a credit card, it's just all paid off), all my bills are paid on time, in full, and I have less than $7000 in student debt (which since I'm going back to school in Sept, I'm not too worried about yet). I've also got $3106.06 saved up for a car (I'll have $4000 saved up by May 20th, so I'll be purchasing it some time soon after!!!!). I've also got my budget completely figured out for the next year or so. Which will allow me to 1)Purchase the car, 2)Take my boys to Niagara Falls on vacation again this summer and 3)Pay for our trip to Jamaica next February!!!!
It's pretty exciting actually, I've never been on a plane and I'm 23, the boys haven't either, and I think we might be bringing my mom with us, which will be nice, because she hasn't done much traveling, and was a stay at home mom with us for years and years, so didn't get the chance to do much of anything lol.

My Boys and their Nana (my mom)

I've also gone through my mom's finances and put together a three year budget plan. Using an average amount she gets per pay cheque, how much she owes for bills/debts/loans ect I've been able to get her debt (other than mortgage) free in two years, get her enough savings for a new (to her at least) car, and get her enough money saved up so her and my dad can go to Europe in a couple years for their 50th birthdays/30th wedding anniversary (which will both take place in 2013). Now all I've got to do is listen to her whine and complain that I'm mean because I won't let her spend money on useless stuff anymore and it's all good lol.
So I suppose being boring, and homey is a good thing sometimes, less money spent at the bar/going out with friends means more money to spend on my boys, a vacation, and a nicer car for me!

Food... Mmmmm

We love food! Face it, my heritage is Italian, French and Irish… all people who love food. I’m not the biggest fan of cooking, I do it, and I’m okay at it, but I love eating!
Mister M is a wonderful eater, loves to try new things, and even try things that he didn’t like before. He eats a much bigger variety of foods than I do, and loves them! I’m so glad. He also loves to help me cook and bake.

D-Man isn’t a “foodie”, he won’t eat, all he wants to do is nurse. I’ve made fruits, vegetables, cereals, meats you name it and he doesn’t like them. I’m at a loss of what to do, my Dr says that he’s fine (almost 20lbs of beautiful boy) and that he’ll eat with time, but I’m ready now lol.

The other day we went to have our pictures taken. D-Man for his 6 month old shots, and I wanted to get some good ones of us as a family, and maybe even one of Mister M. They look awesome, and like I’ve said in a previous post I should have them by the 29th so I’ll post them as soon as I can.
Now to get pictures taken it involves some team work. So I bribed my dad and my brother to come along to help get the boys smiling and such for the camera (and to use my dad’s van instead of a bus). It went well and we got a few nice shots! As part of the bribe I took us all out to lunch after. We went out for sushi, which we all like.
At the restaurant Mister M ordered a bowl of Miso soup, and couldn’t finish it. So I thought, what the hell, and gave D-Man some to see if he liked it……….. He loved it!!! Opened his mouth for more, and ate a whole teaspoon full at one go. It was awesome. Luckily I got some cute pictures.
Hopefully this is the start of something wonderful!

Oh and on the food note, I’ve lost 5lbs!!! And since I’m as bad at Weight Watchers as I am at blogging, baby booking, etcetera I’m pretty proud. It helps that its finally starting to get nice here, so we can get out of the house more too. Hopefully come Spring I’ll be able to get out for a few hours of exercise a day and really lose the pounds! Wish me luck.

Scrapbook!!!

As promised, here are some pictures of my current scrapbook pages. The names have been blocked for privacy, but you get the idea. Also the bath one is still being worked on, I just have to get my butt to the store to get the items I need to finish it. I'm pretty proud of them, the ultrasound one was my first attempt before I committed to purchasing a lot of stuff so it's pretty ghetto compared to the others but I still like it! I apologize for the quality of the photos, my sister "borrowed" my camera so I only had my blackberry to take the pictures with. But you can at least see what they look like!

♥My Boys♥

I've got some pretty great kids. They have their bad moments but for the most part they're awesome.
Mister M is so sweet, sensitive and caring. He loves with a passion, doesn't judge others, and makes friends where ever he goes. He's just a great kid, and he's one of the best big brothers I've ever seen.

He's got his "evil" side too. Loves to play with swords, and pretend to be magic. Dragons are one of his favourite things, and he loves his video games (Lego Batman, Star wars and Indiana Jones). He's learning how to read (he's stubborn so it's taking a bit longer than I thought it would) and he's getting better at typing, singing, writing and drawing. He's smart, witty, funny and quick, its so much fun to be around him and watch him grow. He's also quite a gentleman, holds doors open for ladies, waits at school with a friend of his so she won't be alone until her dad comes because "that's what gentlemans do Mama, they help girls out".
He's just such a good guy, and he's growing up into quite a nice boy. I'm so proud of him, and I try to let him know that as often as I can. I make sure to tell him I love him at least once a day, which my parents never did with me. And I give him hugs and kisses, even if he thinks he's too old for them.

D-Man is hilarious, he's ticklish and loves to snuggle. He's a real Mama's boy right now. Loves to watch other people as long as I'm holding him. Isn't really a huge smilier, would much rather look around and take everything in, but when he does it's gorgeous. He's growing so much, can sit on his own, scoot backwards across the room, roll over if he needs too. He's got into the habit of screaming like he's being tortured whenever he drops something he wants to play with, which is a little annoying but I know he'll grow out of it.
He loves his swimming lessons, kicks and splashes in the water like he was born there. He's got these amazing, huge brown eyes that would just melt any ones heart. Long beautiful eyelashes, chubby cheeks, super chunky thighs and curly hair.

That's something that I was worried about, his biological father is Jamaican with nappy hair, and as you well know, I'm white with straight/wavyish hair. I do not know how to take care of the super tight curls, but so far they seem to just be curly not kinky, so I'm good with that. (To be completely honest I'm jealous, I always wanted curly hair and never had it, perms didn't even work when I was little).
He's such a great baby and I love watching him grow, and develop everyday!

I'm so lucky that I've got two adorable, healthy, funny, smart boys. I wouldn't change a thing♥