Maitland's Birthday Trip

This past month has kept us pretty busy... hahahahaha...ok that was a joke because Matt just now went to work for the first time in weeks and we have been sitting at home being lazy pretty much that entire time!  So this is what we were up to for some of his days off.

Maitland turned one the end of February and we didn't get a chance to do much for his big day so we planned a trip to West Edmonton Mall with some good friends and had us a little birthday holiday!!  Here's the pictures of the big event!

This is Maitland's first ride ever!  They let kids under 2 ride for free 

and of course they need an adult so Mommy got to ride for free too! 

 Tonya and I took the boys on the car ride...looks intense eh!

Caleb didn't want to sit down...you can tell who's going to be the rebel in this pairing!

 Tonya made Blaine switch her spots after going round a few times.

Blaine was super excited for the fire truck! 

As you can see Matt didn't try this ride either...chicken?!?!

Just kidding honey!

 Matt had a pretty bad headache on the first day there so Blaine 

decided he should have an aqua massage.  I wish I had the headache! 

Matt said it was pretty great!  

After the first day at the Mall we decided to go to Red Robin for dinner.  It's Matt's favorite place and the food is so good!  I love the cherry limeade drink!  Then we went back to our hotels to rest up for the waterslides the next day. 

 This is the crazy slide that they just got!  

There was no way I was going on it so of course Blaine did!

He had to wait all day for them to open it but it didn't disappoint!

 That's Blaine at the top checking out just how far he has to fall before going through the loop.

Here's the loop...two different escape pods in case you don't make it all the way around!

Maitland loved the water and especially the waves!

He thought it was hilarious when he got splashed in the face!

Here's our happy swimmer fresh off a wave in the face.

I didn't want to post this pic because no one should have to see me in a bathing suit

but I wanted to prove that I was there and participating!! :)

The birthday boys!  Maitland and Caleb are only a week apart.
They had so much fun together!! 

We need to do this again!
Thanks for the fun May's!!

Winter Adventure!

So I posted a week or so ago that we finally found a family doctor.  On Monday I had an appointment to go and see her. My SIL kept Maitland and off I went to Vermilion.  The weather wasn't great but passable so I didn't think too much about it and continued on my way.  By the time I got to Vermilion I was second guessing myself and wondering if I should just turn around and go home.  But I didn't.  I'm stubborn like that.  I made and appointment and I was going to keep it.  So I went to the Dr.  It was a quick and easy appointment with no earth shattering health news! I was in and out in about 20 minutes.  By the time I got back to my car though it was so nasty outside that it took me 10 minutes to clean off my car and get the windows defrosted enough to drive.  I was thinking I better get a move on because it was coming on 4pm and would be getting dark and hard to see in the very near future.  I was just at the last stop light heading south on my way out of town when I was rear-ended by a minivan.  I wasn't surprised when it happened because there was so much snow and the roads were very slippery!  I got out of my car to see if there was any damage and to check on the other driver t find that the minivan was not at fault but had been rear-ended as well and pushed into my car by another vehicle.  It was a big mess.  The poor van had a smashed in tailgate and the back window had exploded and the drivers door is what hit my car and was all dented up too.  The other vehicle had all sorts of dings from teh exploding glass and the front bumper was all smashed up.  My car...2 scratches and a small spot where you could tell the other car had brushed up against mine.  I felt so blessed and lucky to not have been hurt or sustained much damage to my car.  The three of us decided we better move out of the intersection because it was a very busy road and conditions were only getting worse.  We moved into a parking lot right next to the accident site and waited for the police.  I was getting more and more anxious as the minutes crept by.  The weather was nasty and I just wanted to get home to my little boy.  It was 20 minutes or so before the cops showed up and then he had us all drive over to the police station to file an accident report.  When we got there he let us into the front entry area and told us that we would all (3 drivers and 7 kids) have to stay locked in this area with only 3 chairs.  Super fun let me tell ya!  Anyways, so each driver got a clipboard with forms on it and we had to fill out a million and one things and draw a lovely little picture of the accident.  It took all of 10 minutes maybe.  Once we were done that we then sat and waited and waited and waited.  Finally some of the kids were getting really upset because they had to go to the bathroom (it had been over an hour since we had been "locked up") so they started banging on the windows and yelling for someone to come and let us out.  We found out that our policeman had been called to another accident and wasn't even there to finish whatever we needed.  Grrrrrrr.  So we sat some more.  Finally after more than an hour of being confined the officer came and told us he didn't have time today to interview us and would be contacting us to ask any questions and send out the accident report for insurance purposes.  I was not happy because now I had missed my window to drive home in daylight and the officer had advised me to stay the night in Vermilion for my own safety.  I did have enough of an idea that the police were going to take awhile so I had called ahead to the Super 8 and booked myself a room.  Seemed so dumb to have to stay at a hotel when I live less that a half hour away!  Better safe than sorry though right?  Anyways, the biggest blessing of the day was when we went the hotel the lady that had caused the accident paid for myself and the minivan ladies hotel rooms!!!  She so did not have to do that.  My vehicle was by far capable of being driven home and it was not her fault at all that the weather was so nasty but she wouldn't let us pay for anything.  She even tried to give me money for the vending machines and dinner!  Seriously nice lady.  I decided that if I lived in Vermilion we would be friends.  :)  So I got a night alone in a hotel...kind of creepy actually.  I had to dry my socks and shoes out with the blow dryer from the room and I ate dinner from the crappy restaurant at the hotel.  But I did survive.  I drove home the next morning at about 8:30 and it took me an hour.  I saw 8 cars and 1 semi in the ditch and I imagine there were many many more than that but the tow trucks had been out and working overtime since the snow stopped.  I was so glad to get home and to finally get to see Maitland.  Matt was able to get home and he had to walk to his sisters house because there was so much snow in town that the roads were one big drift.  By the time we were able to get back to our own house the roads had been plowed a bit and I was able to dig a path from the car to the house to get Maitland inside.  It was quite the adventure but I was sure glad to get home and see my little family and be in my own bed. 

Oh Doctor, my Doctor!

When we moved north to Kitscoty the last thing I thought about was a Dr.  Since being here it has become a constant thought for this Mommy who has had a very sick little boy on several occasions.  It's been almost a year and we were still without a family Dr and we would drive to Lethbridge anytime Maitland needed something.  That got old fast!  So when I started calling around again yesterday looking for a Dr I was repeatedly turned down by office after office and getting very discouraged and depressed.  I have really loved living up here.  Our Branch here is awesome, I've met and made some amazing friends, Matt has a good job and we have no doctor.  It was the one ginormous negative about living up here.  Until today!!  My good friend Kalinda was telling me about a new Dr that had moved into Vermilion and that she may be taking patients.  So this morning I decided that it can't hurt to try one more Dr.  Well it worked!!!  We got in to see a new female family physician and I couldn't be more relieved!  Just the peace of mind it brings to know that if something comes up there is someone to help and no more waiting for walk-in clinics for hours on end or having only the emergency room to turn to. 

I honestly believe that as Matt and I have been working really hard at paying our tithing and being committed to doing what's right that our lives and slowly starting to get better and better.  We have received a few immediate tithing blessings! 
Here is one: A week or so ago Matt and I decided it was time to get our taxes done and so we went to H&R Block.  We got in right away and had the appointment all done in less than an hour.  Matt was getting a nice little return and I had to pay.  Pay!!  I didn't even work last year!  Apparently the government was punishing me for having a baby and getting maternity leave.  Anyways, Matt had taken Maitland out to the car because he was getting restless and I paid for the taxes prep and waited for our cash back.  We didn't get cash back.  I was so sad!!  I was sure that we could have our money right then and we had big plans for it!  When the lady told me that we couldn't do cash back I was really angry but what could I do then?  I had already paid for the service of tax prep and was now stuck waiting on the government.  I went out to the car empty handed and depressed.  Matt was bummed too and so we drove home in silence.  We were really hoping to get a large amount of our debt paid off that day and we were pumped to make it happen.  That was not the case.   There is a silver lining to this story.  The next day the tax lady called.  She had made an error on my taxes and I didn't have to pay anything and in fact I had overpaid and was getting a refund as well!  Seriously!!  I guess I'll take back my prayer of spite and evil doings for that tax lady because she fixed her mistake and is getting me money.  I chalk it all up to paying tithing.  I think it's paying off! :)

Could it be?

I saw this little ditty on Pinterest this afternoon 

and couldn't help but include it on my blog.

 

It seemed to ring a bell with me today.  

As much as I would like to be a skinny mini I just don't believe it's in my gene pool.

I of course could stand to lose a pound or fifty! haha

Even if I did lose 50 lbs no one would describe me as thin so this would still work

I like to think that I am an intelligent and funny person

even if I am on the chubby side of things! :) 

Bye Bye Baby!!

It's been a tough week around here.

Our baby decided to grow up.

 Maitland turned 1 on Tuesday.

I cried.

He is such a sweet boy and I don't know if I'm ready

 to move on to the next phase and into the tantrum toddler years...

not to say that Maitland is going to be "that" kid but you never know!

I want my baby to stay sweet and adorable just like this picture...

I mean who wouldn't love that face? 

Before we know it we are going to have a ladies man on our hands.

Here are some first year stats:

weight: 28.5 lbs (99th percentile! haha no surprise there!)

teeth: 4 

Mode of transport: crawling at lightening speeds!! 

Not quite walking yet...won't be long!

Foods he loves: sweet potatoes, green beans and bananas

Words: Mama and Dada and loads of gibberish

Favorite things to do: bath, watch Handy Manny, play with Mommy, put anything and everything into his mouth and flirt with the ladies! ;)

Disposition: generally a good natured, easy going and happy little boy.

Matt and I are so blessed to have been given this 

amazing little boy to have as our own.

There have been so many times where we turn to each other and say 

how cute we think he is and how much we love him.  

He's so funny and smiley and just down right adorable.  

Happy Birthday Maitland!!!

Mommy and Daddy love you so very much!!!

Basket of love!

When it comes to gift giving for my husband I have a really hard time coming up with things that I think he will actually enjoy.  I always seem to get stumped when trying to come up with something.  This may be because I put a lot of pressure on myself to give a gift that is meaningful.  I like to be creative but hate crafts...is that possible?  Anyways, this year for Valentines Day I was again stumped for something that was just right to let my man know just how much I love him.  

So of course I logged onto Pinterest and started searching for ideas.  There were so many cute options...some way to "cute" for my manly man and others that were way out of my crafty abilities!  So I adapted a few of the ideas into one big basket of love!  I saw a pin that was of a bucket full of things that her husband liked...I stole that part for mine basket.  Then I saw a bunch of love quotes that I felt were really great and helped me to express the way I feel about Matt...so I stole those too.  I also couldn't help but notice the gazillions of free printable valentines that were EVERYWHERE....so I stole a ton of those too!  

This is what I came up with in the end.  

First I went to WalMart and went up and down the aisles looking for things that Matt would love. It got pretty easy once I hit the candy aisle! haha  I then went to the craft area and found all the other supplies I would need to put my plan into action.

 I found these really cute little packets of wooden numbers in the craft section for a buck!  So I picked up a few.  I wanted to do 25 things for the basket so I found all the numbers I needed.  I ended up having to cut a few 7's into 1's because there weren't enough in all the packets but it all worked out and looked good in the end.  I then used red and black sharpie markers to color the numbers...this was very time consuming and hard to do with Maitland constantly trying to steal either the numbers or the markers! : )  I also found a really cute heart punch for 3 bucks that made the heart shape on the card above.  I used left over paint chip cards I had to punch the hearts from and skewers that I got as one of the gifts from my favorite things party for the sticks for all the cards.  I know, I'm so resourceful. haha

 I found this cute idea on Pinterest too and just had to add it to the basket!  

It's Rolo's wrapped in red paper.  Took me less than 5 minutes to put it together.

(Thanks Mandy for letting me borrow the red paper...the one thing I forgot!)

When I saw this printable on Pinterest I just knew I had to include it in the basket.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a key to go with it ,there was one available to print that had a picture of a key instead of an empty space but the real key was so much better, so you can imagine my delight when I turned the corner at WalMart and on one of the endcap thingys there was a bunch of charms and necklace stuff and this key was just sitting there smiling at me and waiting for me to take it home. Really, it smiled...okay the key didn't smile but it made me smile when I found it!  I love it when a plan actually comes together. 

This is to show some of the randomness that was in the basket.  Some of my 25 things were candy or dvd's and some were little saying I found and glued to the cards and then spread them around among everything.  I also found the cute little "I love you" sign and a bunch of other classic sayings that I put on skewers to give the basket a little more color.

This is what the whole basket looked like before Matt took it apart.

There were some really cheesy tags on some of the items...

Such as:

You are the apple of my eye (on apple juice...Matt really does love apple juice)

You are the tic to my tac. (on a package of tic tacs)

You are always there to "catch" me when I fall. (on Ketchup chips...a bit of stretch but it was hard coming up with cute saying for everything!  Don't judge me.)

You are the peanut to my butter. (on the Reese's Pieces)

On the rest of the tags (about 10 or so) I wrote reasons I love Matt.  It was really fun to make and I was so happy with how it all turned out.  I was a little worried that he was going to come walking through the door before I got it all assembled into the basket!  He actually brought me the red paper so that I could finish making the bomb so I covered the basket with a towel on the kitchen table and wouldn't let him see it until I was done.  I may have banished him to our bedroom for a few minutes so I could put the finishing touches on it...is that bad?

Even though Matt had left over shepherds pie and I had itchiban for dinner it was one of the best Valentines days I have ever had.  Maybe next week we'll get a babysitter and go out for dinner or something... even if we don't I still felt the love from my husband and little boy.  They gave me the best gift ever and that was time together (and chocolate...the good expensive kind).