"FALL"ing in Love

Reasons why I love the Fall Season:

1. Putting away summer clothes and bringing out wool sweaters. And being the Canuck that I am...I have A LOT of wool sweaters. I don't know about you, but there is something fun about getting out the new seasons clothes. Do you ever find that when you start pulling them out you come across clothes you forgot you had and you get excited to wear them again? ..Maybe it's just me.

2. Drinking hot apple cider

3. Watching the leaves change colours. (Not literally...as if i have that kind of time ;)

Tree in our backyard


4. Halloween. Just realized I can go trick or treating again for the 1st time in like 15 years. So what if my son has no teeth...I'll save it for when he does..Promise!!! (and no my fingers are not crossed)

5. The crisp cool air

Mike and I decided to do someting "fally" (and yes that is a real word) this weekend so we went up to a cute little place called Springridge Farm. They had all kinds of fall festivities and we had fun. There were sooooo many people and it was entirely made up of kids, kids and more kids. There were kids running around and screaming like wild banchees, kids throwing temper tantrums when parents refused to buy them a certain sugary delicacy, kids passed out probably from too much sugar in strollers and wagons, kids shreaking with delight while going through the haunted house, kids with sticky faces from candy apples and kids jumping off hay bales...and then it hit me! I turned to Mike while we were sitting at a picnic bench observing all of the chaos and said:

"Welcome to our new life"!

In recently becoming parents we have now entered the world of dragging Jack to any local event that is kid friendly even if the only exciting thing is getting to pet a goat! We have started our monetary contributions to Duracell and Energizer. Our movie selections have changed from Bourne Identity to Baby Einstein. Our late Friday and Saturday nights have turned into "is it really only 8:00 cause it feels like midnight!". Shopping excursions used to include Banana Republic..now it's the Dollar Store. Yes, it is true, our life as we knew it is now gone, and we couldn't be HaPpiER!! ;)

Some pics from our weekend

Oh the Joys of a Handy Husband

So as you know Mike and I are currently living in his parents basement and we've been trying really hard to make it more "homey"(no that doesn't mean more gansta). There is one rather large room and then a separate bedroom and bathroom. We decided to give Jack the bedroom and then we divided up the larger room into the family room/office and made the other half our bedroom. We were trying to come up with ways to divide the space when Mike said he would build some doors. I'm thinking...Mmm...not that I doubt your capentry skills honey because you have told me you can build things...but the last thing I saw you build was this:






Mike built me a jewellery box for our 1st Christmas together. He had fibbed to me for weeks saying he was working late, all the meanwhile he was building the box. What a cutie patootie! I remember opening it and thinking that it was so pretty but then when he told me he built it, well I started bawling like a baby. I totally thought he had bought it from a store.

So anywho, not that I doubted his carpentry skills but doors seemed a lot more complicated to me than a jewellery box... don't ya think? I had gone down to Windsor with Jack to visit my family for about a week and while I was there Mike told me he had finished the doors. So home again home again home again I go jiggity jig half expecting to see some makeshift cardboard doors but lo and behold look what I found...THESE:








Mike made the ENTIRE thing from scratch. We're talking door frames, the square thingys in the middle (sorry for my lack of door lingo), the rice type paper background, EVERYTHING!!! I think I fell even more in love with him that day. The japanese sliding doors were beeeeeutiful! I don't know about you, but there is just something sexy about a handy man. Knowing that my hunk of a hubby can build things with his bare hands gives me the warm fuzzies. Mike, I will never doubt you again!

You have for once, proven me wrong. hahaha

Move over Ty Pennington



Cuz Michael Ryan is in the Hizzouse!!!


Yup that's right ladies and gents, he cooks too!
(well...at least on holidays and special occasions ;)

So Thankful for Thanksgiving!

What a weekend it has been. It was Canadian Thanksgiving this past Monday and Mike and I had the opportunity to head down to Windsor for a few days to celebrate with my familia. It has been over 7 years since I have been able to have Thanksgiving with my family...and it was well worth the wait! I so look forward to my Mother's creamed carrots, sweet potato souffle, butter tarts and apple crisp. My little Mamooshka worked so hard for almost 2 days just so the 12 of us could enjoy one scrumdiddilyumpcious meal! Aren't Moms just the best! We headed down Friday night and left on Monday only to be able to come back here to Mike's parents and have yet again, another turkey dinner. Two Thanksgiving Dinners in two days = one happy and a little rounder girl! Mom Ryan sure had a lovely spread as well and I am one thankful daughter in law.

Fall is definitely here in Burlington! It's so beautiful here. I forgot how much I love the fall season. It sees like in Alberta it goes from Summer to Winter and Fall might last a total of a week or so. (I believe they already have had snow! mmmm...don't miss that part). The leaves on the trees here are so gorgeous. I'll have to take some pics. There is a tree that is completely red right outside in our backyard.

Living with the In Laws has been awesome so far. We truly do feel blessed that they have let us crash here for a year. Our original plan was that once Mike graduated from NAIT in Edmonton, we would move to Guelph Ontario so he could continue on to get his degree. Well unfortunately that just wasn't in the cards for us yet as he wasn't accepted into the program. The thing that stinks about it is this school is pretty much the only school in all of Canada that has his program (Landscape Architecture) and they only had 6 seats available this year. Come to find out that 13 people applied which doesn't make our odds very good. Mike was so disappointed and so was I as this threw our plans way off. Luckily he spoke to one of the Deans of the program who told him to contact him when he reapplies next year and he'll help him put forward the best application he can. Acceptance into this program is based on three things:

1. Grades
2. Creative Portfolio
3. An essay on the Landscape Architect job.

It's pretty tough to get in so we're hoping that next year it will work out. In the meantime, we decided that we would spend this next year saving as much moola as we can and my in laws were gracious enough to let us stay here for the year. It's been so nice being close to family. My family is only a 3 1/2 hour drive which is nice as well. We really have missed out on the little things like Sunday dinners, being able to celebrate holidays/special occasions, just hanging out playing a game or watching a movie, etc. and now with having Jack, we want them to be able to enjoy him just as much as we do. Anywho, so that is what we've been up to. Mike got a job in his field so that was a huge blessing. He's liking it so far, just not used to the commuters traffic. We live only about 40 mins from Toronto so the traffic here around rush hour is CRAZY!!!

Jack is cuter than ever. I swear he gets bigger by the day and is constantly changing. He has started the beginnings of what I believe is a laugh and it melts my heart everytime he smiles. I've told him that the only thing I ask of him is that he has to smile at me at least once a day and then I'm good to go. He's sleeping for longer stints at a time which i am soooo grateful for! I remember the first night he slept for 7 hours I about jumped out of my bed for joy! I think I had to do a triple take at the alarm clock to make sure that it really had been 7 hours. I could have kissed his cute little face off!!! He's also so happy and talkative in the morning. I can sit there and make baby talk with him for at least a good 1/2 hour. It's adorable!!