My favourite time...

I love all the different activities I do with my chicks during the day but my favourite time with them is bath time!
We have our routine and sometimes we mix it up, but whatever way we do it, I love bath time!
Usually Carebear goes first and then she goes to bed and then I'll do B-Man. I split it up so I only have to do one kid at a time (since I do bath time by myself when Mr. Rooster is not home).
Both of my chicks LOVE the water! They would never get out if they didn't have to! They love splashing and playing with their toys (which I now clean and replace more often thanks to the wise words of cdnkaro (see #10).
Sometimes I`ll get B-Man to go first which Carebear loves! She loves getting to wash the baby, and splashing in his water! She gets so excited when I say it's bath time that she'll grab his tub and run to the bathtub to put it in! LOL She seems almost disappointed when I tell her that her bath is first! LOL

The other day I bathed the kids together for the first time and loved every moment of it! It was so much fun to watch them play in the water together! B-Man laughing as his sister splashed him with water! It was a lot of work bathing them together at this age though, maybe when B-Man is a bit older I'll try it again!

Bath time is the best time of the day, we're starting to quiet down and settle for bed, we're spending time as a family all together, we're all having fun, laughing and playing.
I have so many times during the day that I just love but bath time is such a special time for me.

Photo from thebathtubdiva.com

My Year in Photos ~ 2011

So 2011 was an interesting year. We did a lot, learned a lot, laughed a lot and cried a lot. It brought new adventures and closed some old ones.

We're looking forward to 2012 and all the new things that it will bring.

I got this idea from Jackie at withjustabitofmagic.com. I thought it would be a good way to close 2011 and bring in 2012!

My Year In Photos ~ 2011

January

We WALKED into January with smiles and hope for a fun year! I was already a few months pregnant and Carebear had just started walking! 

February

February was full of love and fun!

March

Carebear got her own bed!! She had been sleeping on a mattress for a while but this was her first official bed! She loved it and started sleeping so well, so did Mommy and Daddy!!! Which was good, since I was 6 months pregnant and working and needed as much sleep as I could get!!

April

April was hard to find a picture to sum it all up. This April held birthdays, Easter, Anniversaries and so much more but one of the best was rainy Spring days! Carebear and I started to get out more since the weather was better but we both loved rainy days and splashing in puddles.

May

May started off slow. Mother's Day and some more birthdays but at the end of the month came the biggest surprise birthday EVER! B-Man made an early entry! He decided to come 4 weeks early and super quick!

June

June was all about getting used to our new little family of four! Carebear wasn't sure of B-Man at first but soon came to like him, well at least show him indifference! LOL

July

We had fun celebrating Canada Day and watching fireworks! What a great way to celebrate July!

August

Aw, spending good time as a family outside! What a great summer, not too hot, not too cool! It was perfect and what a better way to spend time as a family then being outdoors in the sunshine! Mr. Rooster also got a new job and thus started the whole adventure of us moving!!!

September was a busy month settling into our new home! It was a quick and crazy move, but well worth it! We love our new home! We're close to family, the kids have more space, we have a HUGE backyard, close to schools, tons of parks, shopping and right on a bus route! Perfect!

October

Ah October, another busy month! There were so many things this month that it was hard to pick just one photo! B-Man's Baptism, Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest, Birthdays, and our favourite holiday HALLOWEEN!

Yes, our little family loves Halloween, every scary little bit of it! This year we went as The Addam's family (with help from our dear friend)! We had such a great time. I love decorating the house and going all out on spooky foods and devilish treats! Yes, definitely one of my favourite holidays!

November

November marked B-Man's 6 months birthday! Gosh the time has just flown by! Carebear is such an amazing big sister! She loves to help get his pacifier, give him is bottle, help with bath time, and always finds toys for him to play with! She loves her little brother and he is just in awe of her!

December

December

December will have to share two photos because the month holds the two most important events! Carebear's birthday and Christmas! Both were magical and wonderful times! We were surrounded by all the people we love and got to create some beautiful memories.

It was hard for me to just pick one picture for each month. Anyone who is on my Facebook knows I have over 160 albums of photos (oops) and am adding to it on almost a daily basis! I love taking pictures of my family. Who ever said that the more kids you have the less pictures you take never met me! LOL My poor kids have a permanent flash mark on their eyes from all the pictures I take of them! LOL You think I have a lot of Facebook but I have a thousand more on my computer that never make it to Facebook! LOL What can I say?

Kids grow up so fast I want to try to remember EVERY second of it :) 

It was a good year full of interesting things, some I'd like to forget, some I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Happy New Year everyone, and may 2012 be a wonderful year for you all!

Shopping prep...

I don't have much time to blog today. I've spent my "free time" (if that's what you can call nap time around here) doing up our shopping list.
Ah, the shopping list. We each have our own way of doing one. Some just scribble down what they think they need and others, like me, have charts and graphs, store layouts and flyers ready for price matching. 


Yes, grocery shopping for me is not just something we have to do once in a while, it is a full on family activity!
We price match here. For those of you who don't know what price matching is, where have you been? It's only the best way to save time AND money! You go through your local grocery flyers, find the deals and when you go shopping at your favourite store you find the same item, show them the flyer and they give you the same price! You save time from having to drive from one place to the next and money because if you only shopped at one store you'd have to pay their regular price for that item instead of the discounted price.
Yes, shopping is not just going to get food, it takes planning, prep work, and lists! We've worked it out so that now it doesn't take us long to go shopping, but the prep time before hand sure does!
We plan our meals a week to two weeks ahead and then shop accordingly. It takes time but we feel we save money. It's not cheap feeding a family of four on one income, especially now that all four members are eating "regular" food! I think it's worth the time and energy. 

What kind of shopper are you?

Coming to an end...

We have a tradition in our home that we don't take the Christmas decoration down until the 6th of January. This comes from Mr. Rooster's side of the family and since I love Christmas so much I don't have a problem with it at all! The longer the better!


We still have a week left to enjoy all of our festive decorations and it makes me sad to think about taking them all down. This Christmas has been a special one for me. This is B-Man's first Christmas, something I never got to do with Carebear because she was born a week before Christmas so her first Christmas we were so exhausted we didn't do much to celebrate it.


So this year was our first time celebrating a "first Christmas" with any of our kids! It was magical and wonderful. We did a lot of holiday traditions that I hold so dear!

Paper chains

Decorating the Christmas tree

Making a Gingerbread house (or in our case a Gingerbread Train)

Making hand crafts (this is B-Man's hand)

This is Carebear's hand!

It was also our first Christmas celebrating in our own house on Christmas morning. We got the wonderful job of playing Santa! The excitement of putting all the gifts under the tree, setting up the milk and cookies (eating the milk and cookies) and filling the stockings! It was magical and such an honour!

Cookies and milk that Santa ate!

We all got up and ran past the tree to eat breakfast! A tradition from my childhood. We ate breakfast and read the Nativity story (a first for us) then finally we all got to see the tree together as a family! It was so special! We opened the gifts from Santa and our stockings! The kids had set up a Christmas treasure hunt for Mr. Rooster which was a lot of fun watching him search for gifts and clues :)

Seeing the tree for the first time as a family!
It was a wonderful Christmas with lots of joyful festivities! Seeing family, opening gifts, eating lots of delicious foods! 

So that is why I'm sad to take down the decorations, it will signal the end of a wonderful "first" Christmas!


I'm excited about next Christmas though. Carebear will be 3 and so will have a better understanding and more excitement over all the festivities. B-Man will be 19 months and will be running around (my poor Christmas tree LOL).


There are so many wonderful things to look forward to next year's Christmas, but I will always treasure and remember our first "real" Christmas together as a family!

Organized Chaos

Today I was blog searching when I came across one that really hit home with me. "DIRT"Y LITTLE SECRETS a blog about becoming an "ideal homemaker". It really got me thinking about what I do each day and how I can try to perfect it even more.

I try to keep my house organized and clean, try being the word when you have little ones. I have a cleaning list, of daily cleaning chores and a schedule that we loosely follow on my fridge that I do each day.

 One of the phrases that "DIRT"Y LITTLE SECRETS posted was one that my Grandmother and Mother always drilled into me as a child and one that I try to still follow today.

 "A place for everything, and everything in it's place." 

That is such an important phrase to me because I think that it's key to keeping a house organized. I often look at different places in my house that seem to have 'clutter' and try to figure what is cluttering up that spot and how can I find those things a better place to rest instead of that one pile.

Sometimes I have success, other times (like the top of my fridge right now) I don't have the much success. LOL

I like a home that feels welcoming and like you can just walk in, sit down and relax, and I hope that for those of you who have been to my house you feel that way. I think being organized helps to create that feeling.

I have a long way to go and sometimes I doubt I'll ever feel like my house is 100% organized and clean. I find myself constantly scrubbing something, sweeping somewhere or going through a drawer to organize!

I wish I could invest a large amount of money in bins! I LOVE bins, but have never had enough money to invest in a bunch (except for my Christmas stuff). Oh cdnkaro if only I could have your problem and have too many bins! That's my dream!!
That and shelves! I need more shelves! I'd love to have everything in bins on shelves! LOL Now that's a dream!!!

I love being a homemaker! It's been a dream of mine to be a mother and homemaker and I do what I can to make our home run smooth and relaxed. 

Thanks  "DIRT"Y LITTLE SECRETS and fourunder4plustwo (cdnkaro) for the inspiration and motivation to organize the chaos!

Food Families

Carebear has quite the imagination and today she proved just how extensive it is!

Today as we were eating lunch she was munching on a piece of Bologna when he hear her saying, "Mommy, Mommy." I look, thinking she's talking to me and much to my surprise she has chewed her Bologna into two pieces and made one 'Mommy' and one 'baby'. She was playing with them and making them have a conversation. She played Mommy and Baby for a while before eating both pieces with a happy grin on her face. LOL

This is our Bologna family

I thought this was a cute thing to do, and it continued later in the day! I was privileged to meet The Pita Family, and later The Apple Family. 

She had all sorts of food families today and they all had long conversations about the days events and then were eaten!

This little piggie...

Today I was rooting through my sock drawer looking for something warm to wear, when I came across something deep in the bottom that I hadn't seen in years! At first it shocked me to see them, since I thought I must have thrown them out, but alas, there they were!
My Toe Socks!!!

Do you remember toe socks?
For those of you who don't remember, they have been the craze off and on since the 1970's but my fine pair were all the way from England and bought in 2004! Oh ya, they sure brought back memories! LOL

I wore them all day and loved every memory inducing second of it! Carebear just looked at me like I was strange (a look I'm all too familiar with) and Mr. Rooster joined her! LOL

I didn't care, it was fun to wear my toe socks! It reminded me of the crazy Mother Hen I used to be! I've worn and done some pretty interesting thing in my day, and used to be pretty fun and crazy, but if my kids ask, I didn't do any of it ;)

and yes..the toes say "flirt" :)