things i'm loving lately

we're slowly getting into some semblance of a routine. blaise only woke up once last night to eat at 3:45am and then slept 'til 7:30am. glorious. absolutely glorious. he's getting better at going down for his naps, but we're still working on it.
i've been baking lots more and crocheting and am currently on the hunt {which likely means i'll just ask my mom to send me some} yarn that's in the colours of angry birds which i can hopefully crochet for christmas for the boys.
we've sorta scrapped the "screen time tickets" for now, but we do only let the boys have 30 minutes on the iPad at a time. {noah would literally play all.day.long.}

anyway, i thought i'd share with you a few lovely things that i'm loving these days.

chocolate. all things chocolate. i hit this phase every time i have kids. i mean, i love chocolate in general, but this is intense. it comes on strong at the 2 month mark post-partum. i could just eat bar after bar after bar of chocolate {and i have. but not every day.}. it's ridiculous and i'm trying to curb it. but right now i'm currently loving snickers and twix. chocolate and caramel-y goodness. *drool*

lullabies. even if you don't have babies or young kids {or kids at all} get this album. re-done hymns speaking God's truth and peace to your heart. so lovely. {i absolutely love Page CXVI and would recommend all of their albums for anyone who loves hymns.}

i finally got into angry birds. it took angry birds star wars to do it for me. i think it's cute. and i secretly try and beat all of noah's high scores when i play but man! the kid is shockingly good! an addicting game made even better by using one of the best movie series of all time.

i downloaded this book to my kindle a couple weeks ago when someone posted on facebook that it was free. i thought, why not? a free book on parenting couldn't hurt and if i don't like it, i'll just delete it.
i have thoroughly enjoyed this book so far {not quite finished}. as i've entered this new phase of parenting three little boys, jamie and i have been reflecting on parenting and what life was like before kids and how things have changed since. benjamin kearns is funny and speaks frankly while also communicating some powerful truths about parenting and God's desire to refine and shape us as parents. it's not free anymore, but it is only $2.99. well worth it, i'd say.

i'm still loving the homemade graham crackers i posted about last week {just took a batch out of the oven minutes ago. the house smells lovely!}. i'm itching to pull out our christmas decorations out and get started, but that will have to wait until this weekend.
and speaking of christmas, i'm hoping to post a few entries on some of our favourite christmas things. stay tuned for more!

happy wednesday!

share the love

farmer's tans.

no, scratch that. i don't love farmer's tans. 

but both my boys have 'em.

because they're almost always in a t-shirt. 

hence, my love for sleeveless shirts.

and specifically for younger kids - rompers.

oh my heart. 

on a day like today (yeah, it feels like 46 degrees with the humidity) noah is in a sleeveless top and jude is in a sleeveless romper and i.love.it.

i think 2 yrs might be the longest i can push the romper on jude, but dang! so cute!

Old Navy

Carter's

Carter's

love.

what are some summery things you love?

vakay

a few days ago, jamie and i decided we'd take our vacation next week.
and by vacation i mean, drive 15 hours to see our good friends in south carolina.
we're pretty excited.
both boys do really well in the car and our friends have kids roughly the same age as ours. should be fun!

also, two words;

the shopping.

i have to say, i do love to shop. my sister doesn't. my mom doesn't. but i most definitely do.
and here's a few things i'm keeping my eye out for while i'm in the us of a;

raincoats for me and the boys
adorable crocs for jude {i'm thinking of these - in navy}
size 4 shorts for noah
size 4 tees for noah
more of my favourite gap tees {see them here in share the love}
{vanilla coke}
possibly skirts/capris that are suitable for ugands
a bathing suit
possibly a pretty dress for paris {oh did i not mention jamie and i are going to paris for a couple days in june? well. we are. you may freak out with me in 3...2...1...}
good {but stylish and cute} walking shoes

any suggestions/recommendations? {aka, this is your turn to share the love!}
{also, it's going to be hot. like, i get to wear shorts and capris and flops, hot! i'm pumped.}

share the love

It's been a little while since I shared the love so here we go.

If you are looking for a good flip flop I will always recommend Sanuk. I bought my very first pair of Sanuks in 2006 (I'm still wearing them!) and instantly fell in love. They are comfortable and I could walk for a really long time in them. They run around $30-45 but are so worth it (as I am clearly in my 5th year! that's a long time for a flop!). I figured, though, that wearing flops year round might be too much for my 5 year old Sanuks so I bought a new pair to bring along and spice things up. Oh my gosh, you guys, these are the yoga mat line and that means that the sole of the flop is made from yoga mat material. So.Stinkin.Comfy.

I think if I were sticking around in Canada I might have gone for a different style but these seemed to be the most versatile and I'm glad I had Jen there to give input and help me choose ones that are different enough from the ones I already have.

I bought mine at North by Northwest but you can purchase them directly from Sanuk. You should check out the site anyway. It's well-designed and there's a roll-over link that tells you how to pronounce Sanuk. I like.

I had been looking for a wind-up flashlight for each of the boys to take to Uganda when we go and I found some adorable ones at a cute toy store in Fergus called Jester's. I loved how they seemed able to sustain rough play as well as be stinkin' adorable. We have the Panda bear one and the Duck one. 

The pump just pops out of the side you and just squeeze it to recharge the battery. I'd recommend these flashlights for kids even if you're not going to Africa. If your kids are anything like mine, they play with flashlights and then lose interest and leave them on. This way you don't go through 5 million batteries. You just pump it up (say it like Arnold - go ahead) and you've got light!

This particular brand is called Ecotronics and they were $11 a pop. A bit pricey, but we'll never have to spend money on buying batteries so I think it's a fair trade off.

And of course, the token "yum" piece - Mini Eggs. Dang. I can't get enough of them. I bought one of the BIG bags a couple weeks ago to save for Easter with the boys but wouldn't you know it, I opened it one day and it is slowly dwindling. Oh well. Seriously, who doesn't love Cadbury Mini Eggs? 

As for music, I have been randomly singing out lines from the Mumford & Sons song Blank White Page. It's because the song just circles around and around and around my head. You know a song is good when you don't mind it "stuck in your head". The entire album is solid and while it's not new, it's good. So I'm sharing the love, okay?

Can you kneel before this king and say, "I'm clean, I'm clean" ?
But tell me now where was my fault, in loving you with my whole heart?


As I ponder Good Friday (tomorrow), I'm incredibly grateful that I can kneel before THE King and say that I am clean. All because of Jesus. Taking my sin. Paying the penalty that I should have paid.

Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life.
Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life.


He is the truth. And so I follow Him.

share the love (week 3)

How's your Thursday going so far?

I hit the gym this morning with the boys (but only after Jude took off down the driveway before we even got into our car and got a huge goose-egg on his head because he tripped and fell - good times), made an early lunch (it was good, but apparently I was the only one who thought so) and read stories with the boys.

Speaking of lunch, I gotta say, every time I buy one of the Piller black forest style cooked/smoked hams I love them. You can do so much with one (well, the ones I buy are the half hams) and so far I've got a ham & potato soup and a red pepper, ham & pasta dish out of this one with much more left over! So when they're on sale, I buy at least one, sometimes two and freeze them. You really can't go wrong - plus the boys like ham.

And ever since the dreaded dentist appointment of 2011 and was told I have multiple cavities I've been taking dental care a lot more seriously. I mean flossing at least every other night, if not every night. (So I didn't use to floss. I learned my lesson. You should floss too!) Anyway, my dentist recommended an electric toothbrush so I went out and bought the Oral B Vitality and I LOVE it. It has a 2 minute timer on it and the biggest thing for me is that at night I realized I was so tired by the time I was brushing that I'd just do a quick brush and then bed, but the timer helps me keep brushing until the 2 minutes are done. It comes with a charging stand which I like (we'll see how this goes over in Africa, though). I like. It was ~$30 so about mid-range - not $10, but not $100 either!

And I'm fairly certain I've blogged about this before, but for goodness sakes, I love our sound machines. I started using a sound machine for white noise when Noah was about 4 months-ish and we haven't looked back. The white noise has been a familiar sound/thing that no matter where we go, it's somewhat comforting. Also, I know that neither boy need the white noise to sleep as they've fallen asleep without it, but it's helpful if we're watching something after the boys have gone to sleep and we know we don't have to worry about them waking up from our noise. It's comforting to us, too. Who knew?
We have two different ones; the Conair sound machine and the Obusforme Sound Therapy. I like both of them.

And as for music, I'm still loving Sweet Thing's Change of Seasons. I heard it on the radio awhile back and immediately really liked it.
After a quick google I found out that Sweet Thing is from Toronto which makes me like them even more. Love me some good hometown musicians. I love their harmonies and I like the lyrics to this song. Here's the live studio version of Change of Seasons.

share the love

I can't remember if it was last year or the year before (can you blame me? the last 3 years have been a bit of a blur - heck I can't even keep the Harry Potter books/movies straight.) but I bought these amazing shoes for Noah on a whim at Old Navy. They were on sale and they were ridiculously cute. Or maybe they weren't on sale but they were still ridiculously cute.
They looked like chucks but they were made out of corduroy, had elastic laces and a zipper on the side thus eliminating me sitting there like a fool tying up a 2.5 yr old's shoes when he wanted to be outside running around. All we have to do is slip his foot in and zzzip! his shoe is on. Brilliant. Except Old Navy isn't making them like that anymore. Sure they have the zipper on the side but instead of elastic laces, they have real laces! What's the point in that?
Anyway, luckily I bought them slightly big for Noah at the time so they'll still fit him for at least part of this summer.

Every now and then I get into Etsy all over again. I mean, I love Etsy but I try not to go on too much or else all I start to do is covet and want, want, want things. And right now when I'm trying to get rid of things the last thing I need to do is accumulate more!
But the other day I came across this amazing little Etsy shop and I love everything in this shop. A woman named Liz Hutnick runs it and the description is Boho Chic Romantic Gothic Flower & Bird Theme Jewelry. Um, does it get any better than that? 
Anyway, so Jamie agreed to let me purchase 2 things from her shop and I'm so excited to get them!

aqua mini mum earrings. love.

this bicycle  necklace had me at hello. it's on a long chain and I'm in love.

A month or so ago the input broke in our car that allows us to hook up our iPods to the car stereo so I've taken to making mix CDs of my favourite music at the time - or even just albums that I've recently downloaded but haven't got a chance to listen to yet.

Some favourites have included:

The Black Keys - Howlin' For You (Noah loves this song - especially singing along to the "dah dah dah" part)

Kings of Leon - their entire new album (Radioactive, Birthday, Pyro, etc.)

I bought this bluegrass sampler album by Shane Barnard and Shane Everett and I am totally loving it! If you like bluegrass and hymns this is the album for you. (And if anyone knows where I can find similar music to this...share the love!)

Also, this is not a new song, but I can't get enough of it these days:

And I'm sure a lot of you know about this blog, but I love The Nester. Lately she's been blogging about spending your money wisely and not just buying something at a thrift store because it's cheap and cute. There's so much more to it, but I'm truly loving her blog as well as her design ideas (plus did you know she rents her house?!).  Her motto is "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." and really? SO TRUE.

So that's all I've got for today.

I'm hoping to get the boys' passport pictures done today and go for a decent run (5 miles) at some point today so wish me luck!

I said good day!

share the love

recently i've come across a few things that i just really love. and i can't stop raving about them. and so i wanted to add this (hopefully) regular edition to my blog:
share the love
in which i share the things i love. or really, really like.
we all have different tastes and preferences so there's no guarantee that what i love (or really, really like) is going to be what you love, but someone out there might, so i'm just going to share the love.
and please feel free to blog about things you love or add them in the comments if you don't blog (or if you don't want to blog about it or that it's likely you'll forget the moment you walk away from your computer like me).

okay.
share the love: first edition

the beco gemini

people! this thing is a beauty! i've never before been into wearing my babies. i attribute this mostly to the baby bjorn which did nothing to properly distribute the weight of my gigantic babies and therefore was more painful than to just carry them in my arms.
then my sweet, thoughtful, generous friend gave me her spare beco gemini. i can carry jude (weight approx 27lbs. age: 18 months) on my back and he.loves.it. LOVES IT! and so do i. it's going to be so great (i think/hope) for africa. and it can also do front carries and side carries and carry newborns without having to add in an infant insert (should the need arise for me to have an infant to carry...). sweet sassy! (you can buy it here.)

the gap tee

i have found my go-to tee shirt. i'm not sure if i'm the only one with this problem but usually by the end of the day my t-shirt is not as fitted as it was when i put it on in the morning. sure it regains this shape after a wash and dry, but again, by the end of the day i look frumpalicious. not good. and then i realized that i had one shirt that was 95% cotton and 5% spandex instead of 100% cotton and it held its shape throughout the entire day. ah the magic of spandex. (too much = not good.) so i went on a hunt for t-shirts with this ratio (or close to it) and i found it at the gap. i went to the gap outlet and bought a bunch for around $13 in some fantastic colours. i tested one out yesterday and it held up. brilliant. (you can buy it here.)


pc salted dark chocolate covered caramels

divine. 

i splurged on a box of these ($5.99 at zehrs) a few weeks ago and i just about died when i ate one. (and then another. and another.) these are amazing. if you like your salty with your sweet and your caramel with your dark chocolate then these are for you. i loved these. i hope zehrs continues to carry them because oh! delish.

now it's your turn! what are some things/artists/songs/places/people you love?

*disclaimer: i was not sent any form of compensation for this review. these companies have no idea i even exist. i'm simply sharing the love.