the christmas spirit has entered the martyn home!

well i spent a good hour yesterday putting up the few decorations we have at home. we are getting a real tree so that will have to wait until mid-December...but the rest of the festive decor is up and in its place for another christmas season! this is by far the earliest that ive decorated our house and i absolutely love it! it seems a lot of people have decorated early...maybe its the crisp weather we have had?

this friday i am spending the day doing some christmas baking, making homemade christmas decorations with my cousins, and enjoying some holiday cheer. i am sooo excited! ive got a few things planned and i am looking forward to seeing how our projects turn out.


what are your favourite chritmas treats???? this year im planning on attempting chocolate truffles with different coatings, a few different cookies, perhaps some squares, macaroons...hmm...the list could go on for ages. i guess the real list will probably be quite a bit shorter as baking with a 5 month old is nearly impossible! maybe daddy will want some extra baby time this weekend so i can finish off some baking!

my great friend makes the BEST pumpkin loaf which i doubt i will ever be able to top but i might even attempt something similar to that. im sitting here salivating over all of these delicious treats and then wondering why im not losing any weight. oh well, thats what january is for...right?

the christmas to-do list is getting shorter by the day. im hoping to finish early this year in hopes that we can really relax and enjoy the holidays. kingston is going to be celebrating his very first christmas and i want to make it extra special!! im trying to think of creative things to put in his stocking (well, for santa to put in his stocking of course!)...bath bombs, a sippy cup, some toys, socks...so fun :)

what are you putting in your kids stockings this year???

these are the best days of my life

i have never been so amazed by the power of unconditional love since i became a mom. not a day has passed that i've thought "wow...i wish i could turn back time and go back to the way life was before having kingston". he has made each day brighter and has opened up endless doors in my future.

the endless diaper changes, the exhaustion by bed time, the lack of any personal time...it's all so worth it! every night i put kingston to bed and i have a sense of relief that he's gone to bed for the night. i finally can relax, unwind, and prepare for another day. while it's such a relief to finally lay my head on my pillow, the moment he wakes up starts a new day and i feel like i fall more and more in love with this small person every single day. he truly brightens my day with his big smiles, his precious hands touching my face, his sniffly sick little nose, his coos, his laughter, his darling little feet that he loves to rub together. i just love everything about him. he's got an amazing personality, so full of life at only 4.5 months old. it's unreal how much love a mama can have for her baby.

i always worried that i would lose my patience with him. i'm sure many girls remember babysitting and just dying to be done for the day and get out of their. so sick of the crying, the fighting, the whining, etc. i always questioned whether i would feel that way about my own babies someday...thankfully it's so not like that! no matter how often he cries, whines, or protests anything i still love him just as much as i did when he was smiling and laughing at me.

i am so thankful every day that i was blessed with a happy, bright, intelligent, and full of life little boy. since the moment our eyes met we have had a connection that no one else will share! how special is that?

one of my favourite weekend holiday spots!

since my nanny passed away my mom decided it would be a great idea to all go away and just hang out for a weekend. one of our favourite places to escape for the weekend is whistler...we all love it up there!

none of us have been up since the olympics were there so it was super fun to go and see the olympic rings and to browse the village. it was an off time of year to stay in whistler, but we had such a great weekend.

we browsed the shops, bought a few things, ate some good food, enjoyed a few drinks...and just relaxed and enjoyed our stay. i indulged in way too many coffees from starbucks! they just are too delicious to pass up. i love my high-maintence lattes and enjoy every sip of them!

kingston did really well travelling up there. we switched him over to his "big boy" carseat and he's a GEM in the car now! for the last 4.5 months the poor kid has absolutely hated his carseat. he would scream from point a to point b or until he fell asleep...whichever came first. i always dreaded going anywhere because i knew it would be a long and very loud ride. whistler was our first long drive in the car and he did remarkably well! we made it all the way to squamish without a break...and the break in squamish was for his mama and daddy to pitstop at starbucks!

we had an amazing holiday...even if just for one night :)

oh...and on a side note - i'm totally underwhelmed with starbucks' christmas decor this year! it's so bland and not christmas-y!!! does anyone agree?!

tis the season!

i started my christmas shopping today! i feel so good...like i'm so far ahead of the game. the thing is, i do this every year. i buy a couple things early and then forget that the time passes quickly and before i know it, it's december 15th and i have a whole lot of gifts to buy in only a few short days.

i'm thinking that option isn't there anymore. i'm so determined this year to get it done early, and pace myself. i don't want to be scrambling last minute for all of my gifts. i want to be able to relax and enjoy the season...and i want to be able to find things that people will truly like, not things that i've just come across last minute and figure "it'll do"...

i love christmas. i love everything about christmas. this christmas will be extra special for me and our family because we have kingston! he's an absolute JOY to be around so i'm super pumped to see him ripping paper and playing with ribbon. he loves bright colours and i'm sure he will just love having everyone around him. he won't really understand what is happening this year, but as the years pass i know he will enjoy it more and more.

this year i'm focussing on the kids in our life. as adults we can buy ourselves the things we need and what...but kids get so much joy out of openings presents...that's what christmas is about for me. what i've always loved is watching my cousins rip open their presents and seeing the look of absolute joy and surpise on their faces. it's such a special moment that we really only get to enjoy as a family once a year. and this year our friends kids are old enough to know that they're getting christmas presents...so we'll get to brighten a few more kids days!!

i'm so excited i'm jumping inside... 44 days!

...well that wasn't so bad!

we made it through our first full day of cloth diapering and it really wasn't bad at all! actually, i enjoyed it. cloth diapering (while good for the environment, and good for the wallet) actually gives me something fun to do when i'm changing kingston. i can pick out which colour, which brand, which style, which pattern, etc and it's actually a lot of fun!

i only have 7 diapers right now...i have several more coming in the mail so i will have to wash every day, but wow...who knew how easy this would be? the hanging diaper pail i bought has a zipper on the bottom so when i need to do wash, i just open the washer, unzip the bag...the diapers fall into the bag and i start the washing machine (bag goes in too) and presto...i have all clean diapers and i didn't need to even get my hands dirty!

kingston seemed to love them. they're a little more bulky, but the fabric on his skin is so much more plush and soft for his little heiny :) here's a picture of my sweet little man in his bum genius one size pocket diaper...

we're heading up to whistler this morning until tomorrow so we will be using disposables this trip...but i think next time we do a one-nighter i will attempt the clothies there too. i don't have a wet bag for my diaper bag yet, so once that comes we're set!

we're making the switch

well i've made up my mind and i'm going cloth! diapers that is...

i have put in a few orders and am so excited to get them in the mail. i got my first order today...one elemental bum genius all in one diaper, and one bum genius pocket diaper! can't wait to get the rest of the parcels in the mail so i can get them all prepped and ready to be used! i know this is going to be an adventure that we'll need to work into our already busy lives, but it is so worth it.

it costs an average of $1500 to diaper a baby from newborn to potty training. ouch! not to mention that all of those diapers find their way into the garbage can. i can tell you our family garbage has increased dramatically since kingston was born...and all he does is use diapers. it's crazy actually. not only is it a huge cost savings right now...but it will continue to be for our next baby too.

another thing about cloth - they are super fun to shop for!!! i absolutely love browsing the internet for deals on things. i've saved us so much money surfing the net...and now i have another item to shop for. there are different brands, different styles, and my favourite of all - different colours, patterns, textures, etc! i could sit on my computer for hours browsing for diapers. who knew my life would turn this way?

i'm going to try out several different brands of diapers to see what we like best, least, etc. i've read a little bit about each brand and hopefully we'll be settled into our cloth diaper world very shortly. the brands i've got coming are: bum genius, swaddlebees, fuzzibunz, ecobumz, happy heiny, comfyrumps, amp, sunbaby, and blueberry....i think that's it... all of them are different colours, some are minky in texture, and one is even camo patterned. i'm so excited!

the joys in the life of a mama...

a very scary lion!

well, halloween has come and gone and kingston hardly knew it. he was dressed as a lion...a very very scary lion. yeah right, the baby slept almost the whole time; silly boy. he was strapped to his daddy in the baby bjorn and loved every minute of it. we were tempted to bring him up to the doors with the other kids to trick-or-treat but figured that looked kinda greedy....although i'm dying for some halloween candy!

i'm already looking forward to him running around next year...chasing the other kids, collecting mommy and daddy some goodies!