Baxter's 1st Birthday!

I would like to preface this with we do not have children. Baxter is our baby and therefore it was only appropriate to throw him a first birthday party. Two  parties to be exact but that is more so a result of our tiny apartment and not being able to accommodate everyone. We had the parties back to back, a family fiesta on Friday and a few friends over the next day. That resulted in a lot less work because obviously I decorated. It was monster themed, and we were able to use the same decor for both days. Honestly the decor might have actually stayed up for another month, and still the party hat is on the entertainment unit and every time my niece comes over she insists he wears it.
We had a lot of fun and clearly so did Baxter. His birthday and parties were back in April, but with everything that has been happening this is one of those super late posts. So happy very belated 1st birthday Baxter.

A little party decor. 

The bib says 1st Birthday under his chin. Couldn't find a tshirt, he would have liked that better.

We have awesome friends who put up with us and love our cat. 

He loved his cake.

Opening presents like a boss. 

Exhausted after all the partying. 

Jemma is 3!

Today marks the third birthday of my favourite little girl, my niece Jemma. I cannot believe how fast the past three years have gone, and how quickly I could fall in love with her. She has her Auntie's heart and she knows it. She is a precious little girl who is full of energy, love and attitude.
I have been blessed to have a close relationship with Jemma and love spending as much time as possible with her. Jemma loves to come over and visit and she absolutely adores Baxter. A little jealous because he likes her best for sure. He lets her try and carry him around the apartment and put stickers on his paws, they are BFFs. She always wants freezies or frozen tubes of yogurt so we are sure to keep them on hand. Fort, Disney movies and my old barbies are common activities during visits.
Jemma loves to play dolls and names every one of them Kara, her favourite colour is blue (hence we are out of blue freezies), she is afraid of wolves, is a dare devil and loves jumping and going fast. She needs her stuffed dog Captain to sleep at night and every time we drive together she insists on listening to Taylor Swift's We are Never Getting Back Together, on repeat (she knows all the words).
I am so proud to be her Auntie and she continues to impress and amaze me. Happy 3rd Birthday Love!

Dance recital. Rocking out to the Backyardigans. 

Trip to the Detroit zoo. She fell asleep on my head shortly after, and was disappointed that we only saw baby wolves.

Jumping on her big trampoline is one of her favourite activities. 

She hates loud noises, but sparklers are right up her ally. 

I have so many selfies on my phone. 

She is wild and crazy. 

She is obviously an aspiring photographer. There is no view finder, which confuses her and she likes to touch the lens.

She loves to mother anything and is even willing to change poopy bums. 

Love.

March & April Books.

In March and April I took a break about half way through the third book in the Divergent series because I started to be unhappy with the path it was taking and instead started working on finishing the Karen Kingsbury series I started, hmm, two summers ago. Crazy to think I have been trucking along for that long. Now I can honestly say the end is near. One more to go.

Learning by Karen Kingsbury - As I might have mentioned before the Bailey Flanigan series has been far and away my favourite set of books thus far. It might be because it was a faze of life that I recently went though and kind of still am and therefore find it relatable or it might be because I am just a sucker for a great romance. And a great romance it was. This book is a little frustrating because 

Longing by Karen Kingsbury- This book was magical. I enjoyed watching the love grow and the grand (read: unrealistic) gestures that were taken. 

Loving by Karen Kingsbury - I read a few reviews on this book while I was putting in my most recently read books and currently reading into goodreads before I had actually started reading it. I therefore somewhat ruined it for myself, finding out who she actually chooses. However, I completely disagree with all of the negative comments this book was getting. I was actually very happy with who she ended up with in the end. I had wanted it from way back and I understand the frustration that fans felt after having so much put into a relationship. But I enjoy the explanation, some people just are not meant to be.This book was both wonderful and frustrating. You know that moment when you are reading a book or watching a movie and are so frustrated with the characters lack of communication. Seriously, who goes that long without talking? Or that everything could be resolved with one short phone call, yea I felt that. But all in all I am happy that the pretty much fairytale book series came to a fairytale ending. 

Family Day.

A few weeks ago we here in Ontario celebrated family day. Family day is kind of a silly holiday. It comes in the middle of February. You had Christmas just over a month ago and for school kids they have March Break in about a month. Maybe I think it is silly because it came around when I was already in university and always seemed to coincide with reading week which resulted in no extra time off. Now that I am working, I still think it is silly, but I will gladly take any holiday time off I can. Contract workers do not have a thing called vacation, so we take what we can get.

For me family day was a good day. I was able to sleep in, woke from a text from my brother about taking my niece skating and was able to get a number of chores accomplished. Sadly, it is not a holiday for all and the husband had to work. So I settled for a morning skating session with my brother and niece, followed by some grocery shopping, and errands.

I got home shortly after noon where I was able to spend the afternoon cleaning, baking and enjoying some time with the cat. I finished the day with a session of boot camp. It was a busy day, but a productive day, which I love. I could certainly take one of these each month, maybe then my to do list will not be as long.

So much fun. 

February Books.