CANMORE & BANFF, FEBRUARY 2015

First view of the mountains

Elk!

A true man of the West.

Cave & Basin: a must-see in Banff!

Oh, you know, just Leo DiCaprio's film set!!!!!!!!!!!

A LATE CHRISTMAS

These are late coming, but I thought some family and friends would like a little peek into our January Christmas celebrations! We opened up all the gifts early the morning after we came home from the hospital with Juliet. Thaddeus had a blast and we were so blessed, all while our sweet Juliet napped. Enjoy!

AN EARLY START: OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE & DIY ORNAMENTS

This past weekend, we put up our Christmas tree! Yes, November 9th is admittedly a little early, but it's our first tree, and we don't really know if we'll be home for Christmas or not. Baby 2 is due a few days before Christmas, and it all depends on when she arrives. But mostly, these are just excuses. I love Christmas and I wanted to put my tree up!

Thaddeus loved every minute of it. Even now, he keeps saying "WOW!" every morning when he sees the tree all lit up. And I mean a BIG "WOW!!!!". It's probably the cutest thing ever, and I reeeally hope I can catch him on camera!

Sadly, however, these beautiful glass ornaments didn't make the cut. I got them as a gift at one of my bridal showers, and since we have never had a tree, I've never been able to use them. I brought them here from Ottawa this summer with much anticipation, but of course, once I dropped one we decided we should probably wait a few years before they make an appearance on the tree! I had to snap some shots though, because they are just so pretty!

But there's nothing more that I love than handmade things. So this year, I got my craft on and made a bunch of decorations. I love love love our tree so much!

This last ornament was one that someone made for us for a bridal shower gift. Love it!

Our biggest challenge was the "tree skirt". We didn't have one... so we had to be creative! I had bought some sweet Christmas burlap from Michaels to wrap around the tree but I had only enough to wrap around half the tree. Oops! Not like I can just run to Michaels and pick up some more! (The closest Michaels is 3 hours away...). So Mark thought we could try to use it for the tree skirt. All it needed was one of my scarves underneath, and it worked perfectly! 

We had such a blast putting it up, and Mark did a great job letting me do all the ornaments while Thaddeus slept! Hehe. He knows me so well! So happy it's up, and we are really enjoying having it lit at night while we watch a movie or a show (Gilmore Girls!) on our new TV!

Have you put your tree up super early too?

GIVING THANKS

If you were celebrating the holiday this past weekend, I hope you were surrounded by some yummy food, good company, and lots of joy. We spent Saturday preparing our contributions to the dinner: apple crisp (and ice cream), sweet potato casserole, caesar salad (bagged...), and of course, stovetop stuffing. Although we dearly missed our families back in Ontario, we had a wonderfully mellow, but perfectly complete Saturday night Thanksgiving dinner with our Beauval family. There was plenty of laughter, full bellies, sleepy children, and leftovers to be had (which on our part, were had quickly and joyfully). I couldn't help but think of Joey from Friends as I ate my turkey dinner, thankful to be wearing maternity (or Thanksgiving) pants.

On Sunday, Mark, Thaddeus and I enjoyed spending the whole day with one another, which included a Thanksgiving walk in the sunshine around Beauval. It wasn't exactly a walk in Gatineau park, but we sure do live in a beautiful place. The weekend left me feeling very, very grateful.

In other news, I have been feeling for a while now that Thaddeus may be nearing the stage where he will go down only for one nap a day. Well, today marks the beginning of that stage, although I don't know if I'm ready for it! Over the past month or so he has been quite easy to put down for a morning nap, but not quite ready for an afternoon nap. It was definitely beginning to be a bit of a struggle to get him down the second time. So this morning, I finally bit the bullet and decided to push his morning nap as long as I could. Piece of cake, Hallelujah!!! Mind you, we are in the city right now and we spent the morning at WalMart and Value Village (side note: I totally found a Thyme Maternity winter coat for $20!!! I am over the moon!) so I think all that excitement made it easy. We had a quick lunch back at the hotel, and he was out by 11:55. It's almost been an hour now, and I'm hoping I'll get a solid two out of him. Then we'll push through to bed time. So far, so good! Hopefully he'll have a great night's sleep and tomorrow will be just as easy. Here's hoping!

Have a happy Wednesday!