Juno

A few months ago my first pet and feline friend passed away.  Moxy loved to laze around and hump socks, he was quite the character!  Unfortunately not long after Parker was born he died of kidney problems and old age.  He now resides underneath the apple tree in my Dad's yard.

I've been throwing around the idea of getting another furry friend for awhile.  Of course it had to be the perfect fit for our family.  I looked for a couple months, nothing really stuck out to me.  Then I saw her, a medium hair siamese cross.  I thought about getting her for awhile, and then found out she had been spoken for.  Weeks went by and while looking in the pet section on a local shop and swap page, I seen her again.  I had to get her at this point.  My friend drove an hour to go get her for me from a cat rescue in Chetwynd, BC.  So far she has been such a well behaved, playful kitten.  I'm so happy to have a furball to curl up to and some company for when Matt is at camp.

Everyone, this is Juno.

Parker seems to like her, but lets just say we're working on our "nice" touch, haha.

Christmas

Our Christmas was insanely busy.  On Christmas Eve we started the day off  having a pancake breakfast and opening a few gifts at Granny D's house.  We later had an old fashioned Ukrainian dinner at Great Grandma Olga's farm.  And we finished the night off with presents at Grandpa Adam's.  Christmas morning arrives in a hurry and we celebrate our first one as a family opening presents and preparing for more Christmas events.  We went to my Dad's house for more presents until Matt had to leave for work, then headed to Pouce Coupe to visit my Niece and  then had dinner at my Dad's house. Parker and I spent our boxing day eating turkey and candied yams (yuuuumm) at Granny D's.    I'm just beginning to recover and relieved the holidays are mostly over.   But all the madness was so worth seeing the fam jam and watching Parker on his first Christmas. 

Finally!

We finally got our tree up and decorated.  This is our first tree as a familly and I'm absolutely in love with it.

It may not be the biggest,most lavish tree on the block, not all the ornaments match and we're using a toilet paper owl in place of a traditional star or angel.  But its OUR tree and it's perfect, to me at least.

Today Parker, Nana Ginger and I did some last minute shopping (gong show!).  Afterwards Parker helped me with laundry and was ridiculously cute.

Did I mention I baked my BUTT off today?

Don't feed after midnight

This was Parker all day.  Yep, I'm pretty sure theres a stage between infancy and toddlerhood called gremlin.

I did get some awesome mail though!

These are some cloth wipes from Modified Momma Creations.  They are just too cute!

Oh, I also won a Scentsy warmer!  I was so excited to get this.  I don't have any wax, but I'm going to get some soon so our house smells delicious.

We STILL haven't got decorations (except for a lonely owl) on our tree.  I'm hoping to conquer that on top of the mountain of laundry I have to do.

Constant Chatter: Mommy Necklace Giveaway.

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Head on over to Constant Chatter for a chance to win a mommy necklace.  Who wouldn't want one?  I know I could use one with all the scratching and grabbing Parker does while he nurses!

Our Week Captured

My heart beams with happiness knowing the love my family shares

❤❤❤

Baby Wearing FTW!

Another sick day in the Hora/Broadway house. As most babies are when they're sick, Parker was the definition of clingy.  Matt is coming home Monday and the apartment is in shambles.  Dirty dishes, unswept floors, clothing on the ground, a living room that looks like a toybox exploded, you name it.  Parker was NOT going for playing quietly by himself, instead it was tantrum city.  So out came the Pognae carrier and up on my back he went!  I've only carried him on my back once before so I surprised how well he took it.  Not a peep for the whole hour I cleaned.  

Matt and I both use a few different kinds of carriers on just about a daily basis.  Our stash consists of a Pognae buckle style carrier, Buffalo Bean ringsling, a Dolcino Bali and Chimparoo Blue woven wraps.  My two favorites being the pognae and dolcino.  Lately I've been drooling over this beautiful wrap.

Fast forward to bedtime, it was not happening.  Not all the nursing, bouncing or rocking in this world could get congested, cranky, teething Parker to sleep at this moment.  Baby wearing to the rescue!  I dug out the dolcino, wrapped Parker and wore him not even 15 minutes and he was sleeping like a log.

Basically what I'm trying to say in all this rambling is if you don't already have a baby carrier (an ergonomic one, not a crotch dangler, ouch!), go get one!  Even if your infant doesn't have trouble sleeping it's great bonding and excellent exercise.  It makes my tasks soooo much easier!  Definitely a lot less cumbersome than lugging a stroller around too (ahem, stairs).

Parker and I ❤ Baby Wearing.

The many faces of solids.

Since Parker turned 6 months old we have been tip toeing through the realm of solid foods.  So far he likes broccoli, carrots, banana, baby mum mums, avocado, apple sauce (this one took some convincing) and apple blueberry puree.  He's not so hot for sweet potato and pears.  I can't remember exactly what he was eating in these photos, but he sure was hamming it up for the camera!

What kind of foods does your little one enjoy or dislikes?

7 Months

Parker turned 7 months old yesterday.  I can't believe how fast time goes by.  It seems just like yesterday he was a newborn.  He is so much fun.  I love watching him grow and learn new things everyday.  Although I am a bit sad that this means he is now closer than farther from being 1 year old. At 7 months old he can sit up all by himself, army crawl and pull himself up while holding onto objects.  He says yeah, dada and sometimes mama when hes really upset.

Newborn, fresh from the uterus

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

Stand Tall

"Look what I can do, Mah!!"

Parker has learned how to pull himself up into the standing position these past few days.  He's also sitting up unassisted a lot.  We got his photo taken with Santa on Saturday.  He was pretty chill about Santa, until he got a good look at him after the photo taking commenced.  He gets funner and funner everyday.  I love this age!  

Today was spent with the humidifier cranked, Yo Gabba Gabba holding the television hostage and coryzalia.  Poor baby has such a bad head cold.  Feel better soon little man!

Parker Loves Box

He just loves this thing, I have no clue why.

Home

On friday we signed the lease to our new house.  I am extremely excited about having no neighbours on the other side of a wall, having my own washing machine and dishwasher and a fenced YARD (!!!!) for Parker (and possibly a puppy companion) to frolic and play in.

I have yet to start packing (should probably get on that) but I have started thinking about decorating.

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I really love this idea for our bedroom.

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Parker and I NEED these!

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lovelovelove

And of course we need one of these:

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Parker Agrees!

Toilet Paper Roll Owl Ornaments

Well we all know about Pinterest (and if you don't, get on that!) and it's limitless amounts of inspiration.  I use it for so many reasons.  I keep all my recipes organized, collect ideas for Parker's room and many many other things.  In my previous post I mentioned toilet paper roll owls, which I discovered on pinterest.  I made a few and decided they would look great in our Christmas tree.  Here's a tutorial to make your own;

Materials

Toilet paper rolls (or in my case wrapping paper tubes)

Markers

And possibly scissors

First of all if you're using wrapping paper tubes like I did, you'll have to cut them down to the height you want your owl to be.  If you're using toilet paper rolls, skip this step.

Once you've finished that, you're ready to make the owls ear/horn/thingies.  All you have to do is indent both sides with your fingers like so;

Now to the fun part, decorating your owl!  I've seen people use diluted food coloring, but we didn't have any at the moment.  We chose to use Crayola Washable Markers instead.

Tada!  You're owl is ready to perch in a tree, hang out on a mantle or be strung onto string and used as a garland.