My Leibster Award

Nancy over at My Little Criatura has nominated me for a Leibster Award. So, what is a Leibster Award you ask? It is a peer-nominated award given to up and coming bloggers (with less than 200 followers). It is a great way to come across some new blogs with the opportunity to gain some new readers. I thought it was fun, so here we go....

The Rules:

1. Link back to the person who nominated you.

2. Answer the 11 questions asked by your nominator.

3. Choose 11 bloggers, each with fewer than 200 followers, and nominate them for the award.

4. Come up with 11 questions for your nominees to answer.

5. Contact your nominees and notify them of your nomination.

Here are the questions Nancy asked along with my answers:

1. How did you come up with your blog name?  See blog post here

2. What is your favorite blog post you’ve written? Link to it so we can all read it! My favourite posts are a tie between this one and this one.  I love reading the story of Palmer and remembering exactly how I felt that day!

3. Morning person or night owl? Coffee or tea? Salty or sweet? (yes I know I'm cheating and asking more than one question but they're easy one word answers!) Lately, a morning person. Coffee. Sweet.

4. What is/are your favorite book(s)? (This one’s for me - I'm always looking for new book suggestions!) One of my favourite books is Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Quick easy read but so good. Recently, a book I read that I really enjoyed was The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer. I am intrigued by stories like this because I believe things like this actually happen!!! (read post here)

5. What is the one thing (not person) you don't think you could live without? Food. I love me some good food. Might sound a little obvious (and literal) but I love to eat!

6. What is your favorite place you've travelled to? Although I have travelled to many places around Western Canada, the USA and Caribbean, I have to say one place I love going to is Whitefish, MT. The scenery is beautiful, its so calm and peaceful there. There are many things to do there all year round. We hope to one day have a cabin there.

7. If you could spend a day with any person – past, present, living, dead – who would it be and why? I would spend another day with my Grandpa. He passed away 14ish years ago now. I think about him often.

8. Is your life right now what you imagined it would be 5 years ago? Is there anything that surprises you about your life? I don't know that I ever imagined 5 years ago what I have today. I have an amazing, supportive husband who is my best friend in the world, a beautiful, healthy baby girl, the best dog I would ever ask for (minus his floor phobia), a job I can say I love (most days) and a home. Really, what more could I have asked for?

9. If you could go back in time and give your younger self any one piece of advice, what would it be? Have fun. Don't take life so seriously all the time. Its OK to let go and have a good time! 

10. What would you do with a free day all to yourself? This one is hard to say. I don't know that I would want an entire day all to myself. Ya, it would be fun to be pampered and get a massage and a mani/pedi and stuff my face with the most delicious food, but the thing I love most is getting to spend time with Mitch and Palmer as a family, doing family things.

11. If you were to go back to school just for the fun of it, what would you study? What’s one subject you really want to know more about? Like the book I referenced above, The Inner Circle, I am so intrigued by history and  cryptology (like the movies National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code). I would want to learn all about things like this; trying to figure out puzzles that lead to the next clue and so on and so forth. (Does this sound nerdy??LOL)

I choose to nominate:

(Sorry if you have more than 200 followers, I used the numbers from GFC and Bloglovin')

Tawnya @ All of Life's Little Adventures

Chelsey @ Things To Be Stroud Of

Angela @ Happy Fit Mama

Cherice @ Bake Me A Dress

Alexis @ Journey 2 Milfhood

Meg @ Meg In Training

Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers

Brittany @ Surviving Average

Jessica @ Working Mama
Rychelly @ Foltz Family Life
Cherish @ A Girl, A Guy and A Golden

Questions for my nominees:

1. Describe your perfect day.
2. What can you do today that you weren't capable of doing a year ago?
3. If you had to teach something, what would you teach and why?
4. What is your most beloved childhood memory?
5. Describe your life in a 6 word sentence.
6. What is your favourite blog post written. Link to it so we can all read it!
7. Describe yourself in one sentence.
8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
9. What are your 3 favourite simple pleasures?
10. If you had to move 3000 miles away, what is the one thing you would miss the most?
11. When you have a random hour of free time, what are you usually doing?

To My Nominees:
Send me a comment and link back once you have done this. I would love to read your answers. Of course, you don't have to do this, but I think its a fun little way to learn more about each other and a great way to come across some new blogs! 

Friday - Our Week in Fabulous Photos

Mmmm, dill pickles

Pie!

Sitting outsite

Playing with Aunty Candice outside

always falling asleep during our walks.

learned to drink from a straw!

again, falling asleep on our walks

trying out yellow beets

Always so happy in the mornings.

cutting my 2nd tooth!

Playing around

Riding in the car, sipping from a straw

picking strawberries with Daddy

Eating puffs.

5 on Friday

 

I am loving the new fall clothes out right now. And I LOVE skinny pants for babies! I actually found some super cute ones at Walmart that I love the fit of on Palmer, and they are only $5!

In staying with the Fall theme, I’m also loving the new fall soaps at Bath & Body Works! Super awesome scents. I love the fall apple and pear smells! Yum!

Palmer cut her 2nd tooth this week, and once again, did it like a champ!

I made yellow beets for the first time ever - SO YUMMY! I love finding new delicious foods!

 HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE! My last weekend of maternity leave...

I am busy trying to get myself together to start work on Tuesday. It's been 7.5 months since I last worked...It'll be good to get back, but at the same time, I am going to miss spending so much time with Palmer. It'll be an adjustment for everyone, for sure!

What We Did Wednesday

With summer just about over and me heading back to work soon, weekdays spent as a family outside are going to be few and far between. So today, Mitchell, Palmer and I took full advantage of that.

We started our trek by heading over to Tim Horton's for some coffee to go. I tried some Vanilla Bean Iced Latte. Super delicious! We sipped our coffees on our way downtown to Alpenland to look at Chariots/bike attachments (and maybe even a bike for myself). I am hoping we will have some kind of bike attachment for Palmer for next summer so we can enjoy family bike rides. The Chariot brand though is soooo expensive. Great quality and hold their value well, but getting started is not cheap. I'm going to have to start looking on kijiji or something - find ourselves a good deal!

After browsing the store for Chariots and bikes, we headed out to Broxburn Farms. 

We started our afternoon there with some berry picking.

We were only able to pick strawberries today, but we sure got a lot of them! And they are so delicious too! The lady there told us that the raspberries were slim-pickins this week and that we would have better luck if we came back next week or so.

After berry picking, we shopped in the store for some other fresh, organic produce, then headed over to the cafe for some lunch. Everything they have in their restaurant is homemade and fresh! I wish I had taken a picture of our lunch. The two of us shared a Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap with some homemade Red Pepper Cream Soup and some Chorizo Sausage with Homemade Gouda Perogies. Both were really good.

Weekend Wrap-Up

My mom came up again this weekend for a visit and to watch Palmer while Mitch and I had a few things to do. 

Friday started with me giving blood. It was only my 2nd time because after my first time, there was always a reason why i couldn't donate again for awhile (going away to Mexico, being pregnant, etc). As a nurse, I know how much blood can help a person, and being O negative (the rarest type at 7% of the population but the universal blood type in which anyone can have), I know how much more my blood type can help!

Friday evening, Mitch and I headed over to Whoop-Up Days. I had never been before, so with free tickets to get in the gates and a free baby sitter, why not go? I think the fair was much better when I was younger and went on the rides. Mitch and I wandered up the Midway a few times, stopped for an elephant ear, some mini dounts and a lemonade, and made our way over to the stage. The band was just OK. We sat for a few songs then made our way to play some games. Mitchell ended up winning a stuffed monkey, which we gave to Palmer!

Playing with my new monkey!

Saturday, Mom and I went to a garage sale down the street and got Palmer 2 new toys! They light up and play music - her favorite kind!!

Then, Mitchell and I, along with Candice (Mitchell's sister) and her fiance, played in a golf tournament. We have played in this tournament for quite a few years now and have always done fairly well. Last year, we were even one point off of winning the entire thing. Not this year. This year we I sucked BIG TIME! I'm going to blame my awful golf play on only playing a few rounds this year! This was the first year we didn't win a prize...one point off. And it all came down to my drive on the last hole, which I hit out of bounds, costing us 2 strokes! UGH! Terrible! 

Saturday was the longest I had ever been away from Palmer - 11 hours! Grandma said she was such a good girl though (I'm not surprised) and I think it was good for me too; practice for when I go back to work next week.

Sunday we did some yard work, played with Aunty Candice, played another round of golf while we had a free babysitter, then caught up on our Sunday night shows, Breaking Bad and Big Brother! 

Playing outside with Aunty Candice (the ball is one of Palmers new-to-her toys from the garage sale)

5 on Friday

I came across this "Five on Friday" last week and thought it might be a fun addition to the blog so I decided to jump in on the link up. 

Palmer turned 7 months on Wednesday. I seriously cannot believe how fast the past 7 months have gone. Went by in the blink of an eye!

Getting ready for Back To Work. In just over a week, I am returning to work from my maternity leave. I think it will be kind of bittersweet. In once sense I’m ready to get back to what will be “normal life” and I’m happy that Mitchell will get to spend the next 4 months with Palmer, but on the other hand, it will be different being away from Palmer for nearly 9 hours a day.

I am loving zip-up sleepers! Now that Palmer is moving and squirming all over the place, it is difficult enough to get a diaper on her, let alone a sleeper, especially the ones with all the buttons. Zippers are definitely the way to go!!!

This past week I have been focusing more on the Baby Led Weaning approach to feeding rather than the “traditional” pureed stuff and I have to say, it is So. Much. Easier. Giving Palmer pieces of whole foods rather than pureeing everything makes preparation much easier. Clean up on the other hand, is not!

Palmer got her first tooth this week and I have to say, she was a champ! There was no fussing, no middle of the night crying. No typical teething baby symptoms! Just one day, there it was! Here’s to hoping the rest of her teeth are this easy!