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Favourite Fall Photos

11/26/2018

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The holiday season is well on it’s way! I think I’m more on the ball with Christmas shopping than ever and it’s still November. Which brings me to, it’s still November! Which means it’s still Fall.

Is it just me or does hype for everything start a little earlier each year?!

It seems everyone is ready to jump in to Fall early August, with over a month left of actual Summer season. Then everyone is ready for Christmas as soon as Halloween ends. It’s great to look forward to things, I’m certainly getting in to the holiday spirit, but I think it takes away from the present moment. We’re so busy worried about what’s next that we’re done with what IS while it’s happening!

So, even though the land of Instagram is moving on from pumpkin errrythang,. I'm playing catch up on all our Fall festive fun!

At the end of August I took a social media break. Partly to be more present for those present moments. To soak up the transitions of my girls starting school and unplug from everyone else’s “noise.”

It was honestly freeing. Part of me didn’t even want to plug back in... but social media is a blessing in many other ways to plug in to the things we *want* to plug in to! So here I am, back again.

Some of you might appreciate a catch up on snippets of the fun we were up to during that time. And it’s helpful for me to journal some of our happenings to document that season and welcome what’s next!
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Halle started Kindergarten! Our school’s program is only half day and she goes in the afternoon. It’s been a big change for her but she loves it. I can’t believe how much she has grown in just a couple months!

Autumn also started Preschool this year before going to Kinder next year. She is going two afternoons a week and loves it!

This gives me a (super quick) window of time to spend one on one with Jordan or sometimes a day date with Matthew, when he’s off. The girls miss having “built in” friends everyday like they did with my dayhome so they enjoy socializing at school. And this time is much appreciated by me to get things done or simply relax.
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My sister came to visit us during September. This was her first time meeting Jordan. It was great to have her here while Matthew was away to help me with the transition in to school drop offs. It’s a lot of going and I haven’t had to experience that yet...

It was great to simply catch up and we took in some sights around the city! Although early Fall was much colder than as of late. We went to Granary Road and the Calgary Corn Maze.
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Next up was Autumn and Matthew’s birthdays! Year 4 and 30! Autumn hosted her first big kid birthday party at our house. We had some animal activities, old school party games and a glow dance party - cause who doesn’t love that! For Matthew’s, a crowd of us went to a Calgary Hitmen game.

My dad was able to make a quick weekend visit then too! We always enjoy any time we can spend with grandparents.
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October brought us more visits to the Corn Maze. And, luckily, more sunshine too! We love spending the afternoons there. We love the mini doughnuts too ;)

Surprisingly, this was our first year actually carving pumpkins with the kids. Other years we’ve just used them as decor or painted and decorated them. It was fun to do this together this year. And I loved having the pumpkin seeds to roast and add to oatmeal and salads :)
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This Fall Autumn is taking ballet and Halle joined Sparks. Halle really enjoyed her day camp in October! We made an adventure out of that day by heading to the mountains to hike Johnston Canyon.

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Halloween was a lot of fun this year! The girls both had parties at school and it’s always special to celebrate another baby’s “first.” The weather was great for trick or treating and the girls went farther than ever before! We also started a new tradition of having a campfire in our driveway. I handed out treats there and hung out with neighbours and friends. It was better than driving our dogs bonkers and juggling a baby back and forth to the door.
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In other Fall news, the season brought lots of fresh air fun and times spent as a family and with friends. The girls and I also joined a mommy group and have enjoyed connecting with new families through school.

As shared in my last post, I still have big dreams for this space. While sometimes I think I talk a big talk (and don’t take that action) it comes down to a priority struggle for me sometimes. After all, the time being present and the times you see in those photos is what it’s all about. If I can swing doing extra on the side to make my soul happy then that’s just icing on the cake!

One thing I did change up, in a surprising way, was jump back in to designing Keep Collective. There’s a lot more I’d like to share about this but for now it’s just something fun for me! A way to be creative, design reminders of what matters most and help spread some happy with others. And I’ve got big plans on how I want to weave all my dreams together and be more fearless when it comes to doing the things I want that bring me joy!

In saying that, I hope these photos spread some joy to you. I hope Fall was filled with many happy memories for you and yours. I hope you took time to unplug and be present. And, if you didn’t, try it this season. It will be even better during the “most wonderful time of the year!”

Thanks, as always, for reading and following along with our growing family! XO

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Summer Live List

7/30/2018

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Today I’m sharing our summer live list. Lots of things we plan (or have already checked off) to do around Calgary. Plus seasonal things you could do anywhere!

This summer has been much different than 2017. Last year brought us tons of adventure. We camped nearly every weekend Matthew was home plus some longer trips and a vacation home to Newfoundland. Weekends were all the sweeter for exploring our city with the girls because I was working full time. My dayhome was more fun during summer too because of all our extra outdoor time.

This year we haven’t done any camping and I’m really missing it. With Jordan born the end of May and nothing in the books we just haven’t gotten our trailer out this season. Instead we are back to days filled with outside time and going places to keep out of the house (read: for me to stay sane.) And of course to make wonderful memories.
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Here’s a peek in to our adventures!
  •  X As many beach days at the lake as we can get :)
  • Lake events:
    • Stampede Breakfast
    • Duck Race (Funny or not so funny story... I mixed up the dates/times for both those events #momfail)
    • Movie in the Park
  • X Canada Day at Spruce Meadows
  • Inglewood Night Market (July 13)
  • X Baby Group with Sam the Mama Coach (Friday’s 9-11 at Auburn Bay Co-op Community Room)
  • X Bragg Creek Days (July 21-22)
  • X Water Festival in Chestermere (July 28)
  • Inglewood Sunfest (August 4)
  • Sweet Summer Corn Festival (August 11 at Calgary Corn Maze)
  • Globalfest Fireworks (August 16-25)
  • Mommy Connections Teddy Bear Picnic (August 24)
  • Konmari event (August 26)
  • SUP / Born to be Adventurous Mama Meet Ups
  • Movies at the Meadows (Wednesday’s in August at Spruce Meadows
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  • Granary Road
  • Visit City of Calgary Pools / Splash Pads
    • X Ogden
  • X Okotoks Spray Park
  • X Somerset Splash Pad
  • X Ralph Klein Natural Playground
  • U-pick Farm Berry Picking
  • Iron Horse Park
  • Calaway Park
  • X Calgary Zoo
  • X Explore Neighbourhood Playgrounds (Maybe I’ll do another post with some of our favourites. Calgary Playground Review is a s great resource!)
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  • Plan TIU Meet Up
  • X Hot Mama Health and Fitness Postpartum Classes
  • X Watch Daddy’s Softball Games
  • X Drop in Play Gym at Remington YMCA
  • Play at Calgary Public Library
    • X Quarry Park
    • Fish Creek
  • See Hotel Transylvania 3 in Theatres
  • Go for Ice Cream @
    • X XO Ice Cream & Waffles​
    • Village Ice Cream
  • Hikes with kids
    • X Forgetmenot Pond
    • Elbow Falls
    • Johnson Canyon
  • X Backyard Slip and Slide
  • Trail Walks and Bike Rides
    • X Fish Creek Park
  • Road Trip to Edmonton
  • X Tent in the Backyard
  • Calgary Farmers Market
  • Decorate front porch
  • Find food trucks
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The list continues to grow but that’s what we’ve got for now. We always make time for spontaneous fun too!


I feel lucky to live in a city with so many amenities and fun events. And to have such a beautiful “backyard” to explore.

If you’re reading from away, let this inspire you to seek out events in your town. Summer time is filled with festivals and markets. Social media makes it easy to discover new things or community groups. Days with kids are made exciting simply by packing up a picnic and heading to a park in a new neighbourhood. I know for us, being outside and “exploring” makes our day 1000X better!

If you have any fun recommendations for us with a newborn in tow, leave them in the comments :)

Thanks for reading XO

PS. More snaps from summer in this post.
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A May to Remember

6/14/2018

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Where to begin to fill you in on the last month?! It’s been a blur of events. A blissful, happy blur.


It hasn’t quite felt real.

I found myself thinking about that quote from high school English class: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” It just seems like life is different now but not much has really changed.

Our new reality is starting to settle in though and I’m really wanting to document these memories... before the little moments are lost to my mom-brain fog ;)

I also have an ongoing list of blog ideas that I’d really love to make time to write. Truth is I actually have a lot of “down” time, thanks to nursing, that I could turn in to blogging time, thanks to smartphones. But sleep deprivation makes it hard to get in to a writing groove sometimes...

As for now, here’s a look back at the month of May aka best month ever ;)
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Matthew’s Mom arrived at the start of the month. He was working his last set of work away before baby’s arrival. It was such a relief to have her there! As soon as he left for work I started having cramps. Since both girls came a little early I was definitely anxious and nervous the aches and pains could be early labour. Matthew ended up taking some “family days” shortly after which got him home a couple days earlier than expected. It relieved us both of worry to know we wouldn’t have to scramble if he was away (again) if I went in to labour.

However, a whole week and a half was to follow making due day a real waiting game. It seemed like everyone expected me to go early. I had to remind myself that pregnancy doesn’t have an expiry date, it’s simply an estimated arrival ;) ...and this date had been the most questionable for us this time around since I didn’t have an early ultrasound. It also made us probably the most prepared this time around for labour. Which I am certainly grateful for!

We spent those days leading up to baby time celebrating all sorts of other special moments!
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The following weekend, Matthew’s dad arrived. (And so did the warm, spring weather - finally!) We booked a Mother’s Day brunch reservation for all of us. It was really nice to have Matthew home and spend the holiday with my MIL in town. Little did I know, we would have more to celebrate that day!

We had been at the mall the day before. I had seen a cute necklace at a pop-up shop that I mentioned to his mom. Matthew had run out later that day so I thought she might have said something to him to swing back and get it as a gift... (Matthew has actually never bought me jewelry so I’m not sure why I thought this... ) but, as he and the girls presented me with a small gift bag that’s what crossed my mind. As I pulled out a much fancier People’s Jewellers box I knew it wasn’t the necklace. Of course the other thing crossing my mind almost seemed too good to be true! I was thrown off, and so was he, because his idea didn’t really go as planned... yet it seemed true to our not-always-to-plan style, so it was great ;)

Halle had been ‘in’ on the gift. She was so excited for me to open it! What kid isn’t excited about presents?! She was supposed to help ask the question. Me being me, asked the girls if they wanted to help me open it. Autumn being Autumn, kind of took over and pulled it out of the bag, not knowing what was in that little box. This left Matthew standing watching the chaos of the moment and lead to me opening the box. “Are you serious?” I asked... I knew it but couldn’t believe it. And Halle promptly shouted it’s “a wedding ring!” And Matthew asked me to marry him! We hugged and kissed and it was a happy, messy blur of a moment with two giddy girls telling us we’re going to get married!
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All of which clued Nanny (Matthew’s Mom) in on what was happening. She had casually started unloading the dishwasher ha because I had suggested to the girls we sit at the table to open the gift... oops! And Poppy was sitting on the couch... hence yet another reason why my gift took me by surprise! And them too, obviously! I guess Matthew just wanted to surprise us all ;)

Anyway, it was a great moment that completely took my mind off the baby waiting game and labour nerves! It also gave us some wonderful news to share with family who would be calling on FaceTime for Mother’s Day wishes. It really made the day extra special!

The ring had to be resized to fit my finger so I was sad not to wear it out that day. We had enjoyed a lovely brunch and it was this sort of unreal sense of happiness and content.
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The celebrations continued as we celebrated Matthew’s mom’s birthday that Thursday. It was her 60th and I wish we could have thrown a bigger party. But with baby yet to arrive and all of her family back home it just wasn’t realistic. She certainly wasn’t complaining to spend the day with her grandkids though! We celebrated with take out Chinese food for supper and birthday cake.
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​Of course we wondered if baby would share her special day but it turns out he wanted a day of his own! Later that night I awoke with more frequent and intense contractions. I got in the shower around 3:30am in case this was ‘go’ time. An hour later we checked in to the hospital. Then, at 12:54pm on May 18, Jordan John was born! We were overjoyed to meet our baby BOY!


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I’ll be sharing his birth story (+ photos) in detail soon. I’m thankful to have documented both girls (
here & here) so I can reflect on the details as the years go by. I will say, my labour and delivery was another positive experience and the gender surprise made it all the better!

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We spent the rest of the month soaking up family time. Matthew’s parents helped us with some backyard projects, served us home cooked meals and spoiled our girls with lots of fun! We had Autumn’s ballet recital and enjoyed some outings as a family of 5 to the lake and the zoo.


As slow as the month seemed to start, reflecting back, it flew by! I’m grateful for all we celebrated and will share more stories very soon.

Thanks for reading XO

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