Matts parents have been visiting for the last week and a bit. We have been busy visiting, playing with the kidlets and celebrating Matts Birthday. It was so adorable to see how excited Ava was to make Daddy a cake and sing him Happy Birthday, her enthusiasm makes even the little things seem so much better.

Here are a few pictures from our little Birthday celebration.

A few days after Matts actual Birthday we did something we never do, we left the kids in the trustworthy hands of Grandma and Grandpa and we went to the city to have a date night. It was a much needed getaway where we could solely focus on each other and have fun together. I feel like most of the time we forget to enjoy each other and we forget why we fell in love in the first place. All our time and energy is focused on the kids and by the end of the day we are exhausted and a little grumpy and have nothing left to give the other, this was a much needed break and a chance to just focus on us for once.

We went to dinner, did some shopping, went out for some drinks and then went to the new VIP theater that opened up (I highly recommend it, getting served drinks right to our seats was awesome and so worth the extra money). That night in the hotel room i didn't have to wake up to a crying baby or a toddler that had to pee at 3 am and i got to sleep in as long as i wanted, it was amazing! We have both decided that we need many more date nights, although we did miss our babies it was such a nice getaway and i found that since we have been back i am more patient with them and i am working hard at making sure that i take the time at night when the house is finally quiet, to spend some quality time with the man i love.

Feeling the Urge

This past weekend we stayed with my cousin and her little family. She is expecting her second child any day and has the sweetest little baby bump to prove it. Lately i have been feeling very content with my little family of four. Coming from a family of 7 i always wanted my own big, rambunctious family but the stress of having two little ones has had me second guessing that idea not to mention the fact that my husband is happy with sticking to a two kid maximum.

So with all this running through my head i assumed i was immune to catching any kind of baby fever, but i was wrong. Seeing that perfect little belly and watching her face as she felt kicks and movement i felt instant jealousy. I want that again and i want it now. I haven't had the easiest pregnancies (i talked about that here ) but yet i was wanting all of it, the backaches, heartburn, constant nausea...all of it just so i could feel that sweet baby growing and moving inside of me.

So now i feel torn. I know i don't have to make a decision right away, Knox is only 10 months and i gave myself a two year deadline to make a final decision. I just have to put my sudden desire aside, weigh out all of the pros and con's and just wait until i am certain that having another baby is the best thing for me, and my family. I just really don't want to make a decision that i will regret one day and i know that if i had another baby i would never regret it, but i could see regretting deciding not to. The idea of bringing another little Tara and Matt into the world makes my heart warm but thinking about more sleepless nights, the expense of another child and the constant craziness makes me hesitate and take a moment. So until i decide i am going to be dreaming of sweet baby bumps and the glorious smell of a newborn baby.

On Working Out...

I really hate working out. It is not something i enjoy and i kind of feel like the people who say they do enjoy it are just lying, both to themselves and me. I mean who would enjoy sweating and feeling uncomfortable? This being said i do enjoy the boost in energy i have after a good workout and it is because of this and the fact that swimsuit season is almost here that i have decided to start working out again. But i refuse to lie and say i enjoy doing it.

I am a big Jillian Michael's fan. Ripped in 30 and 30 Day Shred are my 2 favourites. The best part of her workouts is that they are 20min long. I find that very doable. I don't have time or money to go to the gym and i have two young kids that I can't bring with me, so at home workouts are my only option. The kids play or sometimes crawl on me while i workout but usually they can keep themselves entertained for those 20 min.

So please wish me luck and send a little perseverance my way, i hope that i stick to my workout plan but i also know that i may have days where the lure of the couch might be too much to turn down, i just really hope that doesn't happen more then twice a week!

The End of the Season

Ava finished gymnastics for the season last week and i wanted to share a few of her last days pictures. She loved going to class and got to meet some new friends, I can't wait for next session to start!

Birthday Season

Its Birthday Season over at the Middlemiss house. My Birthday was first on March 25th, Matts is in April, Knox May and Ava June. The start of this season always gives me a bit of anxiety because I am a planner and I like to have ideas and lists and a plan of how we are going to celebrate everyone’s Birthday. Since we have had kids it seems like we no longer really celebrate our birthdays and just focus on theirs. Both Ava's first and second birthdays were pretty big parties with lots of guests and food. Now that we have done that twice I am thinking we/I may need to cut back this year. It just feels really overwhelming and I know the kids would have fun regardless of the amount of people that are here to celebrate with them.

For my Birthday one of my sisters graciously offered to take the kids overnight. It was only the 2nd night i had been away from Knox since he was born, so I was a little nervous but we really needed a date night. We went out for supper and talked, without interruption. We just sat and enjoyed each other for a few hours, and it was really really nice. We had big plans to go out and see a movie or catch a live band but the lure of an empty quiet house was too much for us. We watched a few hours of Netflix and then slept in as late as we wanted to, it was honestly the best kind of Birthday.

Since Ava's birthday is the end of June I have always tried to do something outside. I have planned games and filled kiddie pools in anticipation of being able to celebrate in the sunshine. Each year the weather turns on me and it ends up raining or being too cold to go outside at all. So this year I am thinking of doing something even easier, maybe renting out the pool and having a pool party? This would mean not having to clean up my house before and after the party and I would also be able to control the length of the party since the pool has scheduled times we would need to be in and out of there by, it kind of seems like a genius idea the more I think about it.

To reminisce on Ava's previous parties here are a few photos from her 1st and 2nd Birthdays, I can't believe how much she has changed over the last 2 1/2 years!

 Knox's Birthday is the one I am having trouble with. Since I did such big parties for Ava I feel like it would be unfair not to celebrate our little man turning one without a big party, but I don't really feel like I have the energy for it. This winter has really drained me. The endless days that have been spent inside, the monotony of doing the same activities everyday, it’s made for really long days.  So I think to celebrate Knox's first year of life, we are going to have a more intimate party and just celebrate with the people that are apart of his everyday life. With my family this still means 25+ people but that’s a lot less then the 40-50 we had at Ava's.

Hello Spring

Sorry I have been absent that last few weeks, a miracle has happened over here…it started to warm up! That’s right. I’m not just talking about above freezing temperatures; I’m talking about +6 to +10 degrees. That’s crazy at this time of year, almost unheard of really, so the kids and me have been busy spending as much time outside as we are able, soaking up that glorious vitamin D. I am starting to get greedy now. These warm temperatures are making me crave green grass, long days and warm nights. We even shovelled off our deck and put up our patio set, hoping our positive maybe slightly over eager attitude will rub off on the universe and keep the warm weather coming. To keep my kids entertained outside we have been dividing our time between sled rides, playing on the swing set, building snow man and snow angels and Ava’s new favorite, snow painting!  

While I don’t know how long these warm temperatures are going to stay with us, I am going to make sure to bask in every ray of sunshine thrown our way, to keep checking my lawn for patches of grass peeking out through the snow, and continue to pull out Spring jackets and let those big heavy winter jackets take the back burner .  Another thing to look forward to this week is a new activity my girlfriend and me are going to try out this week. It’s called Launch Pad and is wall-to-wall trampolines, so your little’s can jump to their hearts desire. I’ll let you know how it pans out; in the mean time here are some adorable pictures of my kidlets enjoying the sun.

The perfect place to take a nap :)

Road Trip

A few weeks ago, we took a little road trip to a city about 3 hours away where my husband was working a trade show in the area. Luckily my sister-in-law lives there with her family so we had a nice place to crash for a few days. Before when we used to travel somewhere we loved to see how fast we could get from point A to point B, now it seems like no matter how hard we try we are always leaving an hour later then planned and the trip takes three times longer then Google map says it will. Short bathroom stops turn into half an hour excursions and stopping for food takes way over an hour. Due to this me and road trips aren’t the best of friends lately. By the end of a journey everyone is a little irritable and cramped and sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle of packing up half of our belongings (since I am the worlds worst packer and tend to think on the side of more is better). One silver lining to all of it is that we have really good little travellers. The kids rarely cry in the vehicle unless they are hungry and we can usually make it a fair distance before we have to stop for a bathroom break.

 So four in a half hours later we arrived (Goggle says we should have made it in 3) hoping to spend some time with daddy while he was off at night and excited to spend time with family. Since our visit was mostly in the middle of the week we had a lot of alone time, with kids at school and people at work, and so we decided to explore the city. There is a large Outlet Mall nearby that claimed to be very family friendly so i thought i would test their claims with my two little monsters.They had a free, clean play area for the kids equipped with tons of play structures for them to play on,  a few of the stores had coloring stations and choo-choo trains set up for kids to play with while their parents shopped, but the best part of the whole mall was the mothers lounge they had in one of the bathrooms.  I love that public places are finally starting to cater more to breastfeeding moms and I no longer have to sit on a dirty floor or in a changing room to feed my son. This lounge had 6 leather recliners, soft carpet on the floor, a few toys and a TV playing cartoons. I was so impressed with it!

My kids had a blast at the mall and even meet a few friends along the way. We ended up going back to the same mall the next day because of everything it offered to keep them busy and entertained (I want to add that the temperatures outside were in the -30's which is why we were looking for anything indoors).

All in all our road trip was pretty good, we did have some low points, daddy had to work way more then we thought and having little ones in a new place that isn’t 100% baby friendly can be tough. My already poor sleepers slept horribly the whole time and on more then one occasion our Queen bed had four people sleeping in it. On the plus side my little ones loved seeing their family and had so much fun at the different play centers we went to everyday. Road trips and me still aren't on the best of terms but we are getting to be better friends.