Rememberance Day

This post can be summed up in 2 words: THANK YOU!

Thank you to all the soldiers past present and future who have given their time, their health and their lives so that we can live in the beautiful and peaceful country we know and love. Thank you to all the soldier's families, the wives, mothers and children who also sacrifice so that their husbands and fathers can fight for us. I am eternally grateful to all of you, because of you, I have the freedom to work, and live in peace, and most of all, I have the freedom and ability to raise my daughter in a wonderful country that we can be safe in and proud of.

THANK YOU

Wordless Wednesday

Addie's new jumperoo

Christmas came early for Addie this year. We bought her a jumperoo and gave it to her this weekend so that she can get the most use out of it, and she loves it! Ryan and I can't get enough of watching her play and bounce, and we totally agree it was the best money we ever spent.

Y3W: We're house hunting

After 6 years of dating, and 3.5 years of marriage, Ryan and I are finally ready to buy a house. This is so exciting for us, because we've been saving and daydreaming about this for years. Every night this week we've gone to look at houses, and we're starting to figure out what we're looking for. We thought we knew what we wanted when we started looking, but after seeing some places and thinking about how things work for our family, we've had to adapt our ideas. This is great progress though because it really narrows down what we're after. So far, our list goes like this:

We Need:

At least 3 bedrooms (because we'd like to have two more babies in this house and need room for them)

At least two bathrooms

A decent sized kitchen (we're finding this the hardest part since apparently builders don't think people use their kitchens anymore)

An open concept layout (this is what we've discovered is most important to us)

We Want:

A big mature back yard so we can have a swing set for Addie

A double car garage

A finished basement

A turn key house

So there it is, I don't think our list is too unreasonable, we're open on the square footage as long as the layout is good and works for us. We've looked at 1200sqft places and 2000sqft places and both would work well for us with the right layout.

We need to buy before May 2011 because at that point my maternity leave runs out and I will actually have to claim only my self employment income which is an annoying process that we'd like to avoid, .

Stay tuned for updates and eventually our new home tour!

Wordless Wednesday

Adventures in pumpkin land

A couple weeks ago, we visited the pumpkin farm. Ryan and I thought it would be cute to take Addie to pick out our pumpkins to carve at Addie's Halloween party (at that point we didn't know we wouldn't make it).

The day started out great. Addie was in a great mood, and our first stop was to the little petting zoo to see the goats, lambs and geese which went over very well. Then we went to the corn maze which was a little too easy to get around, and next we headed on over to the pumpkin patch via wagon ride to pick out the pumpkins. It was during the wait in line that someone pointed out Addie had lost a shoe... so we left the one on and Daddy kept his hand over Addie's sock foot to keep it warm. We had a great time picking out a couple perfect pumpkins, and started to head back to the car, but on the way back we noticed the sign for the boo barn.

The boo barn is a haunted barn for very little kids. It is basically a brightly lit path with cut outs of cartoon ghosts and obviously plastic spiders. We thought Addie might get a kick out of it and there was no line so we went inside. And that's when it happened.... we became the worst parents ever. We realized a little too late that we were in the wrong barn. Instead of taking Addie through the boo barn, we were taking her through the adult haunted barn, and it was pretty scary. It was almost totally dark, there were creepy lights and loud shrieking music, things that popped out of nowhere and cobwebs in our faces. Since Addie was in the baby bjorn and Ryan was wearing her in front of me (it was single file only in there) we couldn't see Addie's face until we got to a room of mirrors. She was absolutely silent, but she looked terrified and her poor little bottom lip was quivering. It was at that point that we basically started running to get out of there as fast as we could. When we finally got outside (it was a much longer walk than we expected), Addie cried for a long time, and it took both of us to calm her down. We felt so awful.

Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Our pumpkins Checking out the goats Kissing on my baby girl

Addie and Mama
Addistein

Her first wagon ride

With daddy in the corn maze

Close up in the baby bjorn

Our little family

Y3W: Addie's New Hat

Addie's New Hat

Addie needs a new winter hat and I am having a hard time deciding between these two that I love. Please vote for the one you like the best (poll at side of blog)

This is her little coat

Option #1 The Owl Hat

Option #2 The Bear Hat