Outpouring of Generosity

Babies must have some kind of magical power. 

They convince everyone around them to love them, and they can't even smile yet! 

We have definitely felt the baby love these past couple of weeks. 

Since she was born we've been blessed non-stop by friends and family. Both near and far. 

From handmade clothing and blankets, to toys, treats, meals, outfits, etc. 

We have just been overwhelmed by the generosity of those around us. 

THANK YOU!!! 

It's been a HUGE blessing to to have this kind of support as we adjust to life as a family of 3!

Not having to worry about meals, or snacks for visitors, or buying clothes that fit. 

Our little lady has been so spoiled already! 

Thank you again :) 

{xoxo}

Birthday Gift for Oma

We were very lucky this year to get to celebrate Oma's birthday with her. 

Usually we don't get to see my mom on her birthday because we live so far away and January is an odd time to travel. Plus we usually would have just gotten back from somewhere over Christmas, sometimes from visiting my parents. 

But this year my beautiful daughter was born in January and since Oma HAD to come meet her (obvi!!), it meant we got to share in celebrating her January birthday too! 

I knew we wanted to have something homemade for her birthday, and that we wanted the gift to represent her first grand daughter too. 

I came up with the idea to make a scrapbook page and frame it for her with pictures of Ellie from her visit. I made the page ahead of time, but we had to be sneaky and go print pictures to add while Oma was here, but without Oma knowing! 

Then, I also wanted to frame some little Ellie footprints. We stamped them so that they looked like hearts. My husband made both the frames in his garage before Oma arrived for her visit and we had everything ready to go when her birthday rolled around. 

The footprints were done when she was just 5 days old! 

We anticipated needing a few sessions to get them all done, but Ellie just let us stamp while she was wide awake! 

We used a water soluble paint to that it was safe for her little toes and washed off easily. 

Here were our finished products up close: 

This is one proud grand parent :) 

Happy [belated] birthday to the very bestest mama and Oma ever! 

We love you VERY much!!! 

{xoxo}

Beginning Cloth Diapers

We did it. 

We took the plunge into the world of cloth diapering our little girl! 

We started about 10 days after she was born because we wanted to continue using disposable diapers while her umbilical cord was still on. 

Once we started, we were committed. 

We had doubts when the first three cloth diaper changes that Ellie gifted us with were full blown poops. I'm talking poop everywhere. Full. System. Failure. 

The brand that we decided to go with for cloth diapering was Peachy Baby
(You can read more about why we chose to cloth diaper here, and which brand we chose here).
The idea behind buying the Peachy Baby diapers with inserts was that I could replace the inserts and not have to replace the cover at each change. 

After three changes I was swiftly losing my confidence in this theory. 

Diaper after diaper thrown into the wet bag was looking less and less appealing. 

But after a few fumbles, things are looking up! 

We found that adapting to using cloth diapers was a bit of a learning curve, but it only took a couple days to get the hang of it.
[And by "get the hang of it" I mean, become moderately confident in what we're doing, lol]

Here are some of the lessons we had to learn:
1) Learning to place the inserts correctly. At first we weren't placing them evenly and they would bunch up. This resulted in many pooptastrophies. But if we placed them evenly and tucked them in at the edges, they worked like a charm!
2) Learning to make the diaper the right size. Another big reason we were having spillage, is that there was too much room for things to shift - diapers were too loose. I thought the tight settings would be too tight for her, but it isn't. Actually, it's perfect. And her pants fit better too :) 

3) Learning that almost every time she pees it stays within the liners (Hallelujah!), and after using the above two techniques even the occasional poop stays in! It's beginning to look like we will get multiple uses out of some of those covers after all.

So far, so good.
The cloth diapering adventure has begun! 

We're still adjusting to laundry loads every other day, and to our baby girl looking like she has a lot of junk in the trunk, but we are very happy with our new diapering routine!

{xoxo}

Where does she get those eyes??

 Don't scroll down yet... 

Just take a look at these photos below:

Do you see a resemblance to mommy or daddy?? 

When I looked at these photos I saw a very clear winner!

Here's a couple more Ellie pictures to help you decide:

Still not sure?? 

Here's one last picture of Mommy and Daddy as a baby to help you decide: 

Please share your thoughts!!

{xoxo}

Maternity Photos

When I realized that I was going to be super pregnant in the middle of the winter, I was excited.
Warm maternity clothes, internal furnace [baby] through the coldest months of the year, and the possibility of winter maternity photos!
I love a nice sunny winter day in Grande Prairie.
Snow-covered floors, hoarfrost on all the tree branches, peaks of sunlight.
 I'm usually reaching for warm tea instead of standing outside in the frosty cold weather without a coat, but what better setting could you ask for!
This is as good as winter maternity photos get :) 

My lovely friend Ashley, who blogs over at Delightfully Domestic, agreed to take some photos for us. and we lucky picked the perfect day in December!

Here are a few of our favourites (too many to choose from!):

Now I just have to narrow down my favourites for the scrapbook and the nursery!

{xoxo}

Our First Week

Well we made it home with Eleanor :) 

Coming home was wonderful and amazing and phenomenal and all those joyous feelings, but being home with a new baby definitely has its challenges. 

When does a mom even find time to blog?!? 

This new baby takes my productivity down by 80%. Seriously. 

My to-do lists are still in existence, but they need to be toned down significantly in order to be realistic.

We are learning to adjust to life with a baby.
I'm learning to function on a total of 4 hours of sleep (ps - it's amazing how your body adapts!).
I'm learning that I can only plan to accomplish one thing, if even, between feedings.
I'm learning to say "Yes, please!" when people offer to help.
I'm learning to soak up the cuddle time! (Apparently it doesn't last that long!)

Ellis sun tanning :) The day we got home from the hospital!  

So far everything is going great, aside from the fact that Ellie wants to stay up all night, and sleep all day. She's really preventing her mom and dad from getting any good rest. I should've seen this coming since she use to do jumping jacks in my belly at night before she was born, but I wasn't prepared. Not at all! We're trying to keep her up and wake her more often during the day now in hopes that we will get some rest overnight… hopefully… one day… lol. 

And the puppies have been adjusting to life with Ellie as well.
Before we brought her home we sent a blanket home with grandma for the pups to sniff - and they did!!
Now that she's been home the dogs have been great! Just very curious.
Daisy (our big pup) follows her around everywhere she goes, hoping to get a sniff of her.
And Joop (the little one) is sort of indifferent… lol. He likes meeting her, and sniffing her, until she starts to make noise, or cry, or smell, and then he moves to another couch.
Both dogs are doing very well though.
We can even leave Ellie on the floor on her rug and the dogs won't bother her. 

We've been enjoying lots of other firsts too… and trying to capture them on camera! 

First swaddle in mommy's wrap, first bath, first walk, first photoshoot, lol. 

Here are some snippets of us enjoying all our firsts:

Happily enjoying our first week as a family of three :) 

{xoxo}

Meeting Oma & Opa

They've arrived!!!

11 long days after Eleanor was born, her Oma and Opa got to meet her :)
Ellie was ready and waiting when they got off the plane!

So much love! Melts my heart :)
Lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles and a few tears. 
There will be plenty more pictures where these came from in the days to come! 
And I'll be able to catch up on some blogging now that Oma's here to hold Ellie all day :)
We're all very excited to have Oma and Opa here for a few days. 

{xoxo}