No wonder they call it a JOB

So I head back to work on April 6th. I'm happy to go because heck this motherhood thing is HARD but I'm also sad that this is the last time I'll be able to spend this much time with my babies.  Heck when they'll even BE babies.  We're not having anymore so I guess it's kind of like the END of a time in our lives.  Sad :( 

Speaking of Babies J went from crawl position to sit for the first time! I was so proud. I can't wait til he's moving around and then walking. 

I did a fun little exercise with E on my Mommies board. I asked her a bunch of questions and typed exactly what she answered. It's cute and gives a real insight into her personality.  I should mention that each question I asked was repeated back by her. She is BIG on repeating and it was challenging to get an answer. 

1. What's your name? "A baby!" She's pushing her baby stroller and looking at me like I should know the answer to that question.
2. What's your favorite color? First attempt-"No." She just repeats the question back. Yep this is my kid
3. How old are you? "Blue" stuck on the last question.
4. What color is your hand? Hand? Not answering that one either
5. What's your favorite toy? "Hand!" Apparently she's still on the last question lol
6. What does a monkey say? Ooooo oooo ahhh ahhh ahhh, she does an impressive monkey, my typing doesn't do it justice.
7. What color is Elmo? Blue (by the way everything is blue or yellow)
8. What do you like to eat for dinner? "Cooookie?" Can't blame her for trying.

I love this part of having kids.  They are such a joy and a challenge all at once. But we'll never do this again and the moments where she calls me Mommy or runs to meet me at the door make EVERYTHING and more worth while!

Oh I didn't see you there...

It's been a while. I've been super un motivated.  And really TIRED....and no I'm not pregnant :D   I'm back to struggling to get myself up and do much more than get dressed (which normally happens around 4pm).  Thank God the Hubbs is home from work.  I swear this place would be a fricken mess.  Anyhow,  Just thought I'd check in.

Things are good with the kids. I can't believe what a little sponge Emma is.  She says the funniest things, she'll repeat anything which can be good or bad.  Jake is dancing to songs now and starting to make sounds that sound like he may be saying Mama or Dada.  Boys and girls are so different.

The In laws came back from Florida last week so we had them over on Saturday.  We put together E's bike she got from them for Christmas and headed out to give it a go.  It was WAAAAY too cold and we ended up just heading back.  Of course they'll never do what you want them to because you want them to. She wouldn't even sit on the seat. But at home she gave it a go.  It's an adorable barbie bike. I LOVED my bike when I was a kid I hope she will too.

Giveaways:

*  J. Leigh Designz is having a See Kai Run Giveaway.  I LOVE the See Kair Run shoes!  Shoes are SOOO important and it breaks my heart seeing blisters or painful feet on a toddler. None of that with SKR.  These are the ones I'd love to win for Jake above.  Perfect for the summer.

Yo Gabba Gabba iiiiiis aawwwesome!

So E and I met up with some friends we haven't seen in FOREVER (since they moved 5hrs north) to go to the Yo Gabba Gabba Live concert.  SOOOO much fun.  I think at the start I was more excited that she was but as soon as she figured out what was going on she got right into it dancing and singing.  Poor thing hadn't been feeling well earlier but seemed fine after and we had a great time.  The girls had a blast.  My friend said it was the best day of her daughters life so far lol. That's pretty good!

 Thanks so much to TS Giveaways for the giveaway!  We had a blast and some great memories just E and I I'll always have.  Here's a few photos.

I've been pretty busy with the concert and stuff  so I haven't entered anything new but you'll be the first to know about. 

Have you seen my workout mojo?

So for the past 7-9 weeks I've been working out 5 days a week no exception.  This past week I worked out three days :(  I do have a bit of an excuse.  On Wednesday I dropped a stroller on my pinky toe.  I'm pretty sure I broke it.  Just laying in bed hurt.  Not exactly great for being physical.  Then on Friday the Hubbs got snipped.  So I have been running pretty ragged doing everything for the house and with both kids since then and trying to keep up with my Etsy shop.

So here I sit on Monday, the day I said I would for sure get back to it, trying work up to it.  It doesn't help when in the last two days I've lost two lbs. Water, maybe. But who cares??

I need some motivation!  What gets you up and going? 

Giveaways:

* A latte in the morning is giving away the ever elusive Flirty Apron.  So cute!  Sexy and feminine, sounds like a win win to me!  Ends on Wednesday March 17th worldwide.

The age old struggle to get kids to eat vegetables.

One of the things I don't do so well with my daughter (my son eats babyfood he's easy) is getting her to eat her veggies.  Fruit she'll eat NO problem.  She will eat an entire pint of blue berries or strawberries AFTER dinner.

So online I read a neat tip to put out veggies as dinner is being made.  So I bought some broccoli and tzatziki and it was a hit!  We shared/ mostly she ate half a head (is that what it's called?) of broccoli.  But do you think she'd touch her pita pizza? nope.  How did that manage to back fire?  She ate some breadsticks and cheese and strawberries so not bad in the end.  Tomorrow we try carrots.

I'm determined to serve more veggies even if I have to hide them.  Even better if I don't!  Any tips?  I'm open to suggestions. I put lots of chunky veggies in chili and she'll eat it. I'm going to try meatloaf...

Heck I even got some mmmm yummy! out of her!

Also I wanted to give a super big thank you to TS Giveaways!  Thanks so much for commenting on my post and letting me know that you were having  a Yo Gabba Gabba giveaway. I won! And now I get to take my daughter and her friend to the show....we're very excited and super grateful for the opportunity to win.  Visit her blog for lots of great giveaways and blogging.    

Wordless wednesday

So lately what's been keeping me busy is Etsy so I figured a photo of one of my new bows might be appropriate.
.

Mixed emotions

I only learned of Layla a short time ago.  She was one of the strongest two year olds I think this world has ever known.  I was touched by her and her families strength and she taught me to enjoy the little things and hug my babies tighter.  I look at every smile on my daughters face differently and every hug, kiss, cuddle is a treasure, Layla gave me this gift and for her and her family for sharing her story I am grateful.

I know that she is a beautiful angel in heaven now.  So much for a little one to suffer and so tragic a life cut short.  I am so glad that she isn't suffering anymore and I send my thoughts, prayers and love to her family, friends and the hundreds of thousands of us who came to love her.  Rest in peace sweet girl.

Layla Grace's story

I came across this family's story in my blog contest entering. I've read her story before, Layla has neuroblastoma and has only a short time left.  At first my thoughts are how would I cope? How does this family keep it together in the face of such tragedy.  But the absolute heart breaker is that poor little Layla is allergic to morphine and all of its cousins.  So she has to take anti morphine medications to take pain killers.  She is suffering. Her family doesn't want to say goodbye but agonizes watching her suffer.  It BREAKS my heart.  I sobbed for them and for Layla.

Layla Grayce boutique is donating $1 for every fan that joins their FB group.  Please join, it's such a small thing and every little bit helps http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/laylagrayce?ref=nf.   You can follow the family's blog http://laylagrace.org/  and/or follow on twitter http://twitter.com/laylagrace.


Giveaways:

*Fun and Funky Mommy is giving away a Dyson Breast Cancer vacuum.  You even get to choose a cannister OR an upright!  Ends March 20th and it's open to Canada and the USA.

A pleseant suprise AND a fantastic giveaways

So I usually dye my own hair with box dye.  It's always a suprise how it comes out. If you dye your hair blonde on your own you know what I mean.  I've tried so many times so many types/shades of blonde that I can hardly remember which one worked how and why.  I've tried ash, golden and beige.  I always have a problem with too much yellow but with ash it always goes too grey.  WELL for some reason I thought the last time I dyed it I used ultra light ash blonde.  Anyhow long story, despite my best efforts I ended up with yellow/orange roots.   I never used to have dark roots til after I gave birth to my daughter, that's another story.  Anyhow, So I decided to use a toner.  I've used toner before no problem.  Here's my second bit of poor judgement.  They didnt have my normal shade of toner so I decided the ashier one looked almost the same so it should be good enough right?  WRONG.  So my roots, still yellowy and the bottom of my hair grey/GREEN!  Yes green.  And the Hubbs could see it so you know it's bad.  So after crying, fighting the urge to reach for the scissors and some internet research I decided to go with a golden/red blonde ot counteract the green.  My wonderful husband ran to get it for me to save me donning a baseball hat and running to the store.  I decided to use copper blonde and well now my hair is strawberry blonde. I don't hate it and it's SO much better than green lol.  What do you think?

 
            Before                                   After

Giveaway:

*I have never been so lucky as to own a Dyson vacuum.  We bought a bissell and while it does a good job with suction...it's like they completely neglected all thought for design.  When I vacuum the vacuum cleaner attacks me.  It topples over landing with a loud crash and has even damaged my wood floors!!  Not to mention I WILL NOT vacuum with kids around.  This beautiful Dyson Animal vacuum upright has the 'dyson ball' which allows for maximum maneuverablity.  And it won't try to kill me, definitely a plus!  It's also designed for animal hair which anyone with a pet knows can be mind bogglingly hard to get off a chair or pillow.

Organic Girl and Today's Diva are giving one of these beautiful Vacuums away.  Visit and put your entry in! Open to US and Canada.  Good luck!

  *  TS (time surge) Giveaways was thoughtful enough to let me know she had a Yo Gabba Gabba giveaway!!  Yes!  I am beyond excited to be able to enter to take my daughter and her BFF to see their favourite characters Live!  YGG is on the tv as I type right now.  And a trip on the Go train, it will be a blast.  If you don't want to try your luck tickets are available from ticket master.  But you can't win if you don't play!   Head over and throw your own entry in...Ends on March 10th. Good luck!

FINALLY- A product that does what it says it will....

Why is that so surprising?  Nowadays it seems like you have to spend a stupid amount of money looking for the product that actually does what it claims, assuming it exists!  The web is fantastic for that. At least you can get a bit of a clue from reviews and what not but still...trial and error.  

I have been on a mission for the past two months or so to get rid of my black heads!  It's like one day I realized how bad they were on my nose and they have been mocking me since then.  I tried a professional facial, that did zip.  I bought expensive Vichy cleanser and moisturizer, also did zip.  I bought glycolic acid cleanser, you guessed it, zip.  I tried scrubs, made my nose smoother but, nothing for black heads.  I even did my own at home spa facial.  Steam, two masks, scrub, biore strip more steam and ZIP.  I can't even squeeze them out.  I bought that fancy little black head tool.

I wanted to try the new Neutrogena numbered cleansers. I did the online 'quiz' and although I couldn't find them in the store, the cleanser it suggested was benzoyl peroxide.  So I got the clean and clear benzoyl cleanser.  Nice.  Feels cool after kind of minty fresh on your face.  But, for black heads, zip. 

SOOOOO on to the winner.  I read some online reviews about the clean and clear black head eraser.

 

I debated trying the neutrogena wave and but I thought since my problem is mostly my nose this might be a better size.  So I bought it. It comes with the battery and some cleansing pads.  The pads have salisycylic  acid.  Which I was skeptical about, I've tried it many many times.  Anyhow to the meat.... the first time I used it. I thought it felt like it wasn't doing anything.  It tickled my nose but it wasn't super uncomfortable.  I looked in the mirror and believe it or not I thought I saw a difference mid use!  Wow.  Could it be?  I used my glycolic toner and actually saw a little colour on the pad.  What??  ok so I'm impressed but still blackheads.  But after one use a difference? Not bad.  Next night.  Again a difference even less blackheads.  

I have never been black head free EVER.  I have only used it twice now but I'm actually excited to see if I can get rid of them almost all together.  I wish I'd taken a before and after to show you.  But if you're in the market for a reasonably priced option try the benzoyl peroxide and this little gadget and maybe you'll have the same results.  I feel like I should be getting something free for this lol.  But really I'm just so happy something actually works.  Kind of sad that's unusual now a days.

Let me know if you try it and it works for you.

Back to work -- for realsies

So it's been a  LONG time since I've been at work not pregnant.  Since March of 2007 to be exact.  I'm feeling a bit intimidated at what to expect.  Things move so fast I feel like I'm going to be brand new all over again. Not to mention people, probably all new faces..ugh.  I hate being new. 

I am looking forward to going back in the sense that I get some me time.  I need work for a break!  Speaking of...I need to bath J. 

One of my newest fave photos.   My Hubbs and my girl being silly....