Surprise #2!

I got another surprise today.  Even though it is only one more day till the BIG day, I truly was surprised to see a box at my front door!  And what's more.....full, I mean FULL of delicious goodies!  Take a look!

I am so excited to dig into this.  AND I am sooooo glad that I decided to open this AFTER Renae went to bed.  That way I can hide me favorites!  ....Kidding (sort of)

Thank you so much Nic, Brad and Michael!  You Rock!

One more day mom....lol

Lunch with Jean

Last Friday I finally got a chance to get together with Jean for lunch.  It had been a long time since I had seen her (New Years) so it was nice to get a chance to catch up.  We went to the Olive Garden, so I got to have my fill of Italian (my all time favorite food)!  Jean was nice enough to snap a few pictures of us at the resteraunt.....I only wish we had gotten a couple of group shots. 

As you will see, Renae is still very much in love with Ketchup as evidenced by the "ketchup face"! 

Today Dakota turns 5 months old!  Time is flying.  I weighed her in my arms last night and she is exactly 20lbs!  Oh, my little butterball.....hahaha!

I guess I have been a good girl!

Well, it's not quite my birthday yet, but I have already been spoiled!  I truly have the most wonderful husband in the world!  Since Norm has noticed that I have been trying to dedicate more time to keeping up with the blog, all of the education pre-school teaching that I am doing with Renae and then all of the time that I am trying to put in to saving us money from groceries, my Internet time has jumped through the roof. Needless to say, our laptop was constantly being used by the both of us.

Sooooo, in the famous words of Steve from Blue's Clues, he got me "A Handy Dandy, NoteNetBook!"

This Means War!

While I was on maternity leave I had some time to think about how I wanted to manage my time.  So, during my leave I started putting together a schedule so that I could make the most out of my time.  The first thing that I put into place was a cleaning schedule. 

This was one of the best things that I put into place!  I know that the word "schedule" sounds so rigid and confining but in reality it has been very freeing!  Before I did a cleaning schedule I would clean "by the seat of my pants" sort of speak.  As I thought of it, I would clean it.  The problem was I was always spinning my wheels and never gaining any traction.  SO, I would eventually feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I wasn't getting enough done and would then block a weekend day and clean the house from top to bottom.  The biggest and most obvious problem with that is that I then felt guilty that I wasn't spending quality time with the girls or Norm.  Needless to say......LOTS of guilt to go around!

Now that I have a schedule, I tackle a little bit each day and it doesn't interfere with my time with the girls during the day! .......And, if I see something that needs to be done, I don't get overwhelmed or feel guilt if I don't get a chance to do it.......it isn't that chores day!  TADA! 

And it works.....for the most part......unless you have a week where one by one EVERYBODY in this house got sick, including yours truly (last man standing).  So, the daily schedule went to the way side and...........the house slowly became a disaster!  So I spent a huge chunk of Wednesday and most of the morning of today "catching up".  Hence "the is a war against my house" going on.....and I am proud to say that I am slowly winning!  However, the guilt......ohh the guilt, I feel terrible that I have had to have Renae watching a little more TV then I would like and she has been doing a little more independent play that I wish I could have participated in :( 

But I hope that by getting back on track there will be a lot more play time in the very near future!

Want to see it? Now keep in mind that I am back at work AND when I am working it is a 12hr shift.  So work days are a bit of a write off for getting chores done and so I have condensed it into 3 days a week. 

Monday - Laundry, Sweep/vacuum floors, Dusting
Tuesday - Work
Wednesday - Laundry, Bathrooms
Thursday - Work
Friday - Laundry, Monthly Chore (ie/dust ceiling fans) - more on the monthly chores later
Saturday and Sunday - no chores/family time (except the odd extra laundry - like when a certain little girl wets the bed....lol)

And that is it.  I find that if I tackle a little bit of laundry each day it isn't so overwhelming.  And if I at least get the above tasks done the house runs pretty smooth.  What do you think?  Do you use a weekly schedule or do you have another method to the madness?  I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Look what came in the mail today!

Well, APPARENTLY some body's birthday is coming up and so that certain someone loves to check the mail at this time of the year to see if any cards might have come for that certain someone.  Not going to say any names though!

So, while I was at war with my house (more on that in a future post) I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye a package at my front door! Hmmmmmm.......wonder who that could be for?!?!

Well!  It wasn't for no other then yours truly! (oops, did I just let the cat out of the bag)  Well, I opened the box and a beam of light shot up and glorious music started playing (If I'm lyin' I'm dyin')......and when I finally was able to focus I noticed not one but TWO cans of Tim Hortons coffee!  Then if that wasn't enough......a box of Quality Street!  Umhummm......you heard me!

Suddenly turning thirty .....ahem......eight doesn't seem so bad!

Thank you Colleen and Matt!  And the gifts for the girls and the ornament are wonderful as well!

(Oh and mom.......10 days left)

Update on our Date Night

So I spent the day keeping Renae busy and missing her nap.  First we went grocery shopping to get items needed for the evening meal.  Then we went to her school for the Valentine's Day party.  Well, as it turned out, it wasn't what I expected.  When we got there, the kids were playing outside (as they do daily) and then they came in to eat lunch (which was the food that the parents dropped off. For example, I signed up to bring a veggie tray).  Then they got their valentine bags that had a few goodies that the teacher put together for them.  .....and that was it.  Oh well, Renae still had fun playing with her friends.  But I didn't take any pictures.  Sorry. 

I promise to be posting lots and LOTS of pictures on here on a regular basis.

Anyway, after the party we went and played at the park for about an hour and a half.  Renae had a blast and Dakota slept the whole time.  Finally we came back home and I started to get things set up for the Valentine's supper and Renae was watching a movie.  Well, as I was buzzing around the house tidying up and such I noticed that Renae was real quiet. So .....I went and checked on her......and she was asleep on the couch.  OH NO!  So I gently woke her back up and she finished watching her movie, had her supper, bath and was in bed ASLEEP by 7:30!  Wow, it worked!  Dakota was also in bed asleep by 8pm!  Incredible. 

So Norm and I got to have a WHOLE meal without rushing, or having to try and get Renae to eat her supper or anything!  Wow, I forgot how nice that can be. 

We had a salad and then Fillet Mignon, Baked Potato, Steamed Asparagus, followed by a healthy version of chocolate pudding for dessert.  Oh, and some wine with our meal. 

Since both of us were under the weather we ended up skipping the movie but that is ok.  Being able to have some alone time with Norm as a gift in itself.

So what did you do for your Valentine?  I would love to here.

Oh.....as a after note.  Although adjusting the girls so that they would be asleep for the meal was nice, I don't think I should have messed with Dakota's schedule because she woke at 10:30 and then didn't go back to sleep until 3:30am!  Ahhhhhh, did I mention that I had to work yesterday!  Oh well, her being a baby will end so quickly that even nights like that I treasure.  NOT that I am begging to do that again though....hahaha!

Happy Valentine's Day!



Well, I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything on here and I am so sorry.  I found that it was a struggle to get the time to do any postings with the baby and going back to work. However, this is all about to change!  I feel that I have now gotten into more of a rhythm and got my feet back on the ground and can tackle a blog again with gusto!

I'm so excited to get back into doing this and I know a few of you have requested for a link again so I hope you enjoy checking out all of the updates that I have planned.  My hope/plan is to update this blog daily, but it might be a challenge on the days that I work, we'll see. 

It is so nice to start this on Valentine's day!  I hope you all have lots of plans with your respective sweethearts!  The plan for myself is to make a nice supper for Norm.  I am planning to keep Renae up from her nap (wish me luck) with the hopes that she will be tired enough to go to bed early tonight.  I am also going to take the girls into the daycare for a little Valentine Party that they have planned for today.  I will be sure to take pictures as I am sure it will be cute as can be!  I will try to post those pictures on here later today.  But since I am notorious for planning more then there are hours in a day.......

So what are your plans?  How do you get a romantic night with your sweetheart when you have little ones out and about?  I would love to here!

As far as updates on the Burt household.......

Norm has been really great at getting back into physical fitness!  He works out 4 days a week and is eating very healthy!  It is wonderful to see that he is more energized and he is happy that all of his hard work is paying off!  Work for him is good and steady for the time being.

Renae is as cute as can be!  She is always making me laugh!  I will start posting some of our "conversations" in the near future so you can know what I mean.  She is growing like a weed and is talking, almost daily, about her upcoming birthday!

Dakota is a gem!  She is always smiling at anyone who even glances in her direction.  For the most part she is sleeping through the night (although, if I ever get comfortable with that she slips in a midnight feeding just to shake things up a bit).  At her 4 month check up she weighed a whopping 18.5lbs and has grown 4.5inches!  Yes, she is our little butterball!  She isn't sitting on her own yet or rolling over but I am expecting both to be happening any day now.

Myself, as I mentioned, I have gone back to work for about 5 weeks now.  I am back in the ICU, which means back to 12 hr shifts but I only work 2 days a week and 2 weekend days in a month.  So that allows me a lot more time home with the girls and more frequent time home with all on the weekends.

As a family, well......we plan on making a trip back to Canada in the near future to have Dakota christened.  More details on that as I have it.

Well I guess that is all for today!  I have included some recent pictures of the girl for a recent trip to the park as well as one of Dakota on the couch so you can see what 18.5lbs looks like.....ha ha!