It's a New Year, Be Happy!

It's a New Year, be Happy!

This is my way of saying "Happy New Year" which I'm sure you've all heard over the past couple of days now from various family and friends.

So indeed it is a new year. There is always such excitement and great joy with the turn of a new calendar year. Perhaps because it means new possibilities, new careers & new goals to accomplish for many. I too love the new year & the freshness that January brings. I had started to compose a long list of things that I had wanted to do this year, but then I had to stop myself. Realistically my life is dictated these days by my 5 month old daughter & toddler son. In my mind I would love to do about 100 things, but that would mean sacrificing important things to me which is mothering these two precious gifts of God. Instead of focussing on many things, I am choosing to continue on with my priorities and "strive" to do even better with God's help & strength. Here are some of the things which I'll be focussing on once again;

1. Placing God 1st!
*I like to start my day off by praying and reading God's word giving Him my full attention*
(side note, there are many days when I do this while the children are awake. I would rather do this before they wake up, but it doesn't always work out that way. Plus I don't mind them seeing me read or pray. How else will they learn to do this?)

2. Loving & Respecting my husband.
(This will be pretty easy because I really do have a wonderful, caring, loving husband. Seriously :)

3.Spending time on the floor with the kids.
(These two are playful little souls & Missy is getting quite active now with reaching out & rolling around. Plus my toddler boy is 3....enough said, haha)

4. Having dinner ready, or at least started by the time the hubby gets home.
(Hello Crockpot :)

5. Having a clean kitchen before heading off to bed.
(I love going into a clean kitchen in the morning. Truth be told it doesn't happen often enough, but were working on it)

I know that everyday will bring about its new challenges & perhaps nothing will get done, but as long as I strive to do the very best that I can with the time I've been giving each day, I will be happy. It's all about trying and striving for this mamma.

I would like to take this time to wish you all the very best as we journey on in 2014. Good things are on the way for you. Just believe, trust God & stay focussed.

It's a New Year, be Happy!

Maternity Leave has begun!

This week I officially started my maternity leave and I still can't believe it! Prior to this day arriving, it seemed like forever mainly because I was slowing down...big time. For good reason too. My baby is currently at the 82 percentile for weight already. At about 33 weeks the baby was already measuring at about just over 6 pounds...insane! Isaiah was a BIG boy and his weight also spiked around 32 weeks. This explains why I was extra tired. I'm pretty much carrying a full term weight baby inside.  Other than the minor discomforts that I've had, all in all I really can't complain. Lately I've been realizing more and more that it is a blessing and gift from God to be able to first of all get pregnant and then carry the baby through to full term status and then delivering the baby. There are so many woman who would give anything to have a baby. In fact I knew of a few who are still waiting patiently. So I am reminded that God has blessed me with this gift and instead of complaining about the discomforts, I should be thankful for them. I mean the physical discomforts of pregnancy do go away once you have the baby. It isn't forever thankfully :)

So now it's the "waiting game" as some call it. I've enjoyed my week so far getting in rest when I can, but at the same time trying to keep up with my busy little tot. We decided to take him out of daycare. I am so happy to have him around. He's so much fun these days, plus really who wants to pay the high daycare costs when you know you don't have too? Not me!  We live in an area that has lots of fun and free activities that we can go to, plus I have a ton of friends who are stay at home moms so lets just say we'll be spending time with them.

I'm excited for this new chapter to begin when baby finally arrives, but at the same time I'm soaking in these last few weeks with my little man. It feels so great to be off with him again. I am one happy momma :)

First blog of 2013.....better late than never :)

My last blog entry was back in October 2012 which was many moons ago.  I can't believe that so much time has passed since my last entry and a new year has begun. I hope that 2013 is going well so far and that if you've made any goals your sticking to it. If not and you've fallen off track, just know that you still have so much time to get back on board. Start fresh today or even tomorrow. There's still time to accomplish your goals and move forward in your plans. Have the right mindset and attitude and you will be amazed at what can be accomplished.

A little change has occurred since my last blog entry in October. The happy little change is that I am pregnant again. I found out the happy news back on December 8th. Once again I was in shock as the results changed on the pregnancy test clearly indicating a very positive YES. This time around I only took 1 pregnancy test from Dollarama. Oh yes Dollarama sells pregnancy test & the results are accurate just like the other expensive ones. The first time I was pregnant I took about 3 tests, lol. I am very excited that a new life will be joining our family in the coming months.We are most likely not going to find out the gender. We love the element of surprise. We didn't find out with our first pregnancy (but deep down from day 1 knew it was a boy...just what I wanted :)  This time around, especially in the very beginning it was hard for me to figure it out. But I'm going to boldly say that we think its a girl. I say this because this pregnancy has been way harder on me. I've been sick with nausea (which I didn't have with Isaiah). That carried on till about 15 weeks on and off. Either way we are going to be so happy with the gender because we will be having exactly what were suppose to have. This pregnancy has also been harder this time around because we have a busy toddler. I can't just lay around. I have to be active to some degree with him. There are times when I will rest on the couch as he plays around me. I love those moments when I can just relax for a bit. But for the most part, the little man wants your full attention and he wants to play with you. He's constantly saying "get up mommy" and in turn I have to muster up the energy to do so or I'll say in a minute to buy some time before the oh so famous toddler meltdown, haha!

We think that Isaiah is starting to get that a new person will be joining us because we try to talk about it. He will often on his own kiss my tummy and say wake up baby. It's sweet. I also have a toy doll that's the size of a newborn and he is protective of it for the most part. That's a good sign...right?!?! 
I know Isaiah will be a good big brother. He's starting to say more and more that he wants a baby sister, so we'll see what happens.

I have no idea what life with 2 children will be like. I've heard an array of stories from "it's not as crazy as you think," to "it's really hard." I love hearing the good, the bad and the ugly because in reality it's going to have it's challenges. I'm trying to not see so far into the future and take things day by day. We will not know what it's really like until our baby makes an appearance and our new life begins as a family of 4.

So in a nutshell that's been my life over the past couple of months.I've been growing a baby & getting over crazy nausea and sickness. I'm feeling much better these days and more like my old self. I'm also starting to feel the baby move. That by far has been the best feeling ever. Just a few more months to go until we meet this new little person & we couldn't be any happier :)

More sleep...yes please :)

Having a "good laugh" happens daily in the McKenley home....the long sleep however gets put to the back burner way too often these days & I really have no excuse. Isaiah sleeps through the night and has been doing so for months. We usually put him down around 7:30pm and he's out until we wake him up the next morning around 7:30am (on weekends we let him sleep in so that we can sleep in too :)

For some reason we just haven't been able to get ourselves into a good sleep routine. We've had hits and misses throughout the years, but as we are getting "older" sleep needs to become more of a priority (in my books at least). We have two friends in particular who are great at getting sleep. One friend of ours is a court officer and would always go to bed by 10pm. It never mattered if people were over visiting. He would politely get up and say "I'm heading to bed." It never came off as rude. In fact, we would always admire him for still getting his rest in even if people were over.

We did sleep training with Isaiah when he was 4 months with a sleep doula and it really paid off. He's a great sleeper & napper to this day. So now we are going to start "sleep training" ourselves. I know, sounds funny right? But I think this could be good. Instead of trying to be so ambitious and start out with some ridiculously early bed time like 9pm, we'll start out with a later time (11:30pm) and work our way down. I think the ideal bedtime for me personally would be 10:30pm.

I will keep you posted on how our "sleep training" goes. We all need at least 7 hours of sleep (at least that's what I read over and over again). So here's hoping for great sleep which in turn will result in more energy for the mornings :)

Well its official…..I am in the “Smartphone” World!

Goodbye Flip phone…..Hello Smartphone!

It all happened over the weekend. My cell phone which I inherited from my sweet hubby (after my older cell phone of 5 years died) finally stopped working for me. I could still text and make calls out, but I couldn’t hear the person on the receiving end at times even though they could hear me. Oh yes, pretty ghetto. I did enjoy my cell phone and was happy to not pay for data usage. As my phone got worse and worse I decided (with the help of Saj) to finally leap into the Smartphone world. My phone provider has been hounding me for years to upgrade and I would always pass, but this past Saturday I finally took the plunge. The great thing about the phone that I got (which is the HTC) is that I didn’t need to “upgrade” my current phone plan or get a data plan. I get to keep my “grandfather plan” as they phrase it. If I want to add data I can always do that at another time, but I really don’t think that I will need it (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). I have Wi-Fi at work, at home, and it’s available in so many places these days. 

 I am very glad that I waited this long before jumping in. In the very beginning (maybe 2-3 years ago) I definitely thought that I wanted a Blackberry. As time went on I realized that the Blackberry just wasn’t the phone for me personally. I lost interest in it (no offense Blackberry users). Probably about a year ago I started looking at the Androids. I didn’t see myself as an Android user at all, but then the more I started looking at the different ones out there plus trying them out, the more interested I became. Before you IPhone users jump down my throat, just know that I think that Apple has made a great product (my hubby has the IPhone 4S & loves it). I did strongly think about getting one, but after much thought it just wasn’t the phone for me. At the end of the day the HTC was my preference and it completely suits & exceeds my needs. Its very user friendly with a ton of free apps and a great camera/video recorder (you know how much I love to take pictures:) and it’s so fast. I honestly don’t think I will use this phone to its full capacity. There is so much you can do with it which I love.

I have officially entered into this new “Smartphone World” and I love it!

Dear blog world I am still alive...

The last time I blogged was back in May....I know, too long of a break right? Every time I've wanted to blog I just never got around to doing it.So here's hoping that I can actually start doing some more posts now and in the weeks to come.

 Since my last blog, Saj and I celebrated 9 years of marriage on June 7th. I can't believe how quickly its going by. It certainly doesn't feel like 9 years. Next year we hit the BIG 10 year mark. Double digits baby. A trip to Bora Bora would be my dream.....but I'm pretty sure that's not happening for our 10 year, lol. This may sound cheesy, but as long as we are together that's all I really care about. If it's a walk on Main street in Unionville & Starbucks, I'll take that. We are really about the simple things. Quality time is our love language.

 Summer has also come and gone way too quickly if you ask me. Now we have hit the cooler season which also happens to be one of my favourites...FALL. I love the changing colours and the freshness that the Fall always brings. I also love Fall even more-so now because that's when Isaiah was born. Its hard to believe that he is 2 now. So many people use to say to us "enjoy this time, it goes by so quickly." At the time I didn't really get it (due to lack of sleep, and trying to figure out things along the way) but now I do. Where in the world did those 2 years go? Just 2 short years ago Isaiah was only 10 days old and now he's walking, talking, running, climbing, dancing, eating lots and my list can go on. I enjoy him so much these days (except for those temper tantrums...that I can do without, lol).

Saj was also born in the Fall too (he just celebrate a milestone birthday this weekend....40, eek). It was a busy weekend for us and we didn't have the chance to properly celebrate. Saj was in a wedding for one of his good friends Nigel Maynard. The wedding was on his actual birthday (October 6). At the reception though, everyone sang happy birthday to Saj which was so sweet.

As for me, well I turned a year older back in July. I had a great day with my hubby and I was actually off on vacation during that time which was amazing. There are days when I feel like the pace of life needs to slow down. I often wish there were more hours in the day to do things, but what I'm realizing is that I need to prioritize better and just do what I can each day. I also want to start going to bed earlier. I'm realizing that I do need more sleep. I'm sure better sleep could do us all some good. I really enjoy my times with Isaiah. I love being outdoors with him as he explores the world from his view. He brings me such joy!

In a nutshell that's life. There is so much more that I could write, but I like to keep things short (even though this blog is a bit on the longer side today :)  I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your loved ones and took the time to Thank God for all of His great blessings.  I am thankful for my crazy family. Life wouldn't be the same without you.

Mothers Day 2012 - The Highlights :)

sleeping in until 7:45am

beautiful tulips

a new book signed by the author

a wonderful message at church

hearing Saj sing

an afternoon nap

dinner out with my husband and son

eating popcorn...... 

that's how I spent my 2nd mothers day.... Just perfect!