i just busted a gut

this article slayed me, honestly its so hilarious(ly true!).

thankfully my kids are too young to jump on the bandwagon of exploited holidays but I feel it coming. 

Oliver is already commenting on this toy or that one, we don't have cable or satellite so he doesn't see commercials at our house but of course everyone else we know does... 

this article is a hysterical reminder to everyone to bring the holidays down a notch!

baby love

 a little gift giving idea for those little ladies in your life...

check out this etsy shop. I've ordered a couple of dolls from this shop in the past, 

for birthday gifts etc and the owner/designer Secelie is such a doll to deal with.

Recently I ask her for a custom listing of 2 large dolls and 4 smaller mini dolls. 

With some back and forth (her attention to detail is great!) she sent me these photos last night!

The cutest right? 

I can't wait to spread the joy this holiday with these adorable dollies.

 these yellow/grey mixes are so unbelievably sweet! 

Check out Heart Felts for your custom creation 

or choose from her wide selection of ready to ship dolls. 

esty love

I bought these ultra adorable felt masks for party favours 

for Oliver and Georgie's joint woodland themed party last May.

and they were a huge hit with the kids (and parents too!)

I thought I would share as they make a great gift for the littles if you are starting to think about xmas gifting... and even if you weren't.

woodland masks from Mahalo, cost about $10 each

 I also bought this adorable set from magicalattic for about $30

a very un-merry and then merry again christmas

Well after a whirlwind couple of days, 

with back to back family Christmas dinners.... it hit. 

The flu took a hold of Guy and left Oliver fevered for 2 days now. 

Thankfully Guy felt much better this morning and Oliver's only symptom has been a slight temperature. But it made him ahem a tad miserable this morning and definitely less enthusiastic about the presents Santa brought than he would have been otherwise. Not to mention the horrible night we had of very little sleep as he and Georgie traded off waking me up every hour. 

Oliver didn't want to ride his new wheely bug, didn't want to look at his stocking and really wanted no part of anything except some cheerios and juice. Once he got a little something in his belly though he started to come around. But I annoyed him with my camera and he promptly told me "no taking pictures". Georgie on the other hand was having the time of her life despite practically being up until 4 am. She was just loving the new shape sorter and sensory balls to no end. 

As the day progressed so did the mood, Oliver livened up 

(of course the day was still sprinkled with 2 year emotions) and we watched Christmas movies and played with our new puzzles and toys. 

My best present was a pack of Norwex travel sized enviro cloths that have provided us with a great way to keep things disinfected around here, I leave a damp one on the coffee table and we periodically wipe our hands and everything else we have touched with it. Hopefully it will help keep these nasty germs from spreading to Georgie and I! Please let it be so,

 a teething baby with the flu while being sick with the flu.... I can't even let my mind go there.

Photo dump from our weekend and from this morning.

And so our Christmas 2012 was filled with merriment and then some not so merry moments. 

Our first Christmas as a family of four and our best present is getting to spend the rest of the week together without any hustle bustle and hopefully without any illness!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. 

ghill life lately

and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

(finally) although I'm totally fine if we have another winter like last year.

It makes driving much easier then trekking through snow storms, especially with 2 wee ones.

But we Canucks like ourselves a white Christmas,

green ones just don't feel the same!

So snow if you are coming then stick around for a few days,

you can leave again on the 26th!

1/. backyard snowfall

2/. bright sun on a dark morning....ahhh two year olds!

3/. this curl

4/. I've created an ipad monster/thief

5/. stashing presents like my parents used to do... I never snooped I SWEAR

6/. perusing flyers- apparently you can never start too early.



give a little

After the horrifying events in Connecticut, 

I have been unable to shake that achy sad feeling. 

Unable to process that we really live in a world that can take 

20 innocent children and 6 heroic women in such an unfathomable way. 

And unfortunately this is just the most recent (publicized) atrocity, 

there are crimes and injustices committed against innocent people everyday. 

I needed to do something selfless and good and human.

So this year instead of loading up stockings for Guy and I like I normally would, 

I put together 4 stockings (one representative for each member of our family) to take to our local charity the House of Blessing. I packaged up some new pajamas, clothing, toys and treats as well. 

Yesterday I delivered the packages and the woman working was beyond thankful for our donation. 

Insisting on taking my information so they could send us a thank you card which was totally unnecessary and totally sweet. My heart felt good. When giving her my information, she paused after I told her my last name (which I thought was weird) but when I got into the office just a short time later my mom told me that her and my dad were going shopping for the local food bank. I realized this lady had probably just spoken to my dad  before I came! In our small community of about 30,000 people this food bank feeds about 500 families a month, so out my parents went to purchase supplies

 that will fully stock their shelves. My heart felt good. 

My sister has a Christmas tree at work that has names of children that are less fortunate. Her and the other employees at her company have been piling up the gifts under the tree to take every one of those names off the tree. To give each one of them something to open on Christmas morning. 

I have been reading stories about Paying it forward in our community. Stories about local people doing random acts of kindness for random strangers. I'm addicted to it actually, I usually get a bit weepy over them because they are so genuine, such pure acts of goodness. And they aren't about spending a lot of money, they are about taking a moment to think about someone else before yourself. 

About how giving a little means can mean receiving so much for that person. 

So this Christmas while we are enjoying our little ones, holding them close, watching them open their gifts with excitement and eating our plentiful dinner(s). We can rejoice in the real spirit of Christmas, in knowing that we have paid it forward and sent blessings to others when we have received so many.

This Christmas I urge you to give the gift of humanity, your heart will thank you for it!