Happiness Breeds, sweet moments this week...

I wanted to keep this happy train going every week, choo choo!

Unfortunately, I don't follow the news as much as I once did... honestly it was doing more harm than good for me, so I had to take a step back.

I love current events and politics but the climate these last few years has been so stormy, I just couldn't bear the whole weight of it.

These days I follow a lot of my celeb sites (you can be intelligent AND love celebs! ;) ) and Nick keeps me up to date on the politics I need to know about. (I am not ignorant, I just had to stop reading every available article, ever. It was making me a crazy person!)

As far as happy stories go, it’s really hard to find what I am looking for without stumbling upon all the heartache. That leaves this blog post a little bit stale, it will only be stories from our family coming at you this week.

If you do see any happy, uplifting stories, videos, news articles send them my way so I can share them in next weeks ‘sweet moments’. (baby animal stories always get me!)

First off, this photo. ^ 
I love looking through all my snaps, I zoom in on backgrounds etc.
And if you're making a funny/ugly face in any one of my photos you get zoomed in on and sent to my sister group text, this has been happening for years, sorry.

But this one was so sweet, Elliott was holding Noelle's little foot and it just makes my heart welp.
He really, really loves her.
Whenever we ask him about having another brother or sister he will say he wants another little sister,

and when we ask why?
He says, “because I love my sister!”

*Noelle has extra long toes.
She's going to be one of those fingers as toes people!
I'm going to break the news to her early so she will have time to grieve and brace herself for the coming jokes.

This Dr. Jart Shake and shot mask at Sephora $15 was really fun!
I recommend it if you're looking for an entertainment factor.
Dr. Jart is great at skincare but I wouldn't get this one solely for results, I would look forward to the experience. 

I took Elliott on a mommy and me date to see Peter Rabbit and it was so good!

I loved it and will for sure watch again with Nick.

It was a tad over Elliott's head (he's 3) but honestly, he understood it even better than I thought he would! He explained the whole thing to my mom and Nick when we got home and he went into way more detail than I anticipated.

I don’t want to give away the story but there’s a tremendous amount of ups and downs which he kept in the proper order so it was adorable listening to him describing it. 

I think this girl is keeping her dimples and they're just the cutest.
Still not sure what colour her eyes will end up, the change daily!

I've tried a ton of new makeup lately! (Or new to me)

Some are going to be permanent staples, I will make a dedicated post of some sort ASAP but just to start..

The Ordinary products (click!) they're all so good and so cheap!



This Coty ^ Click photo
Setting powder that will be my only setting powder from here on out, forever and ever. 

We are working on Noelle's bedroom, this ^ is before we emptied the dresser full of clothes onto the bed. It got much, much worse before its going to get better but stay tuned to Insta stories for that!

NO Bake energy balls! Click

I make these all the time and they're from my fellow ECMM blogging friend Gina.
Super yum!

And that’s all I can think of right now (midnight, just watched the women tell all- bachelor and wowie) 

Let me know what’s been making you smile this week! 

My go to hair: Dutch Braids....

I LOVE a braided hair look.
In my opinion, braids are the most underutilized of all the hairdos!

You always see the girls with ponies, top knots or down and flowy but how often do you see a braid??

French braid, Dutch braid, Fishtail, Piggy tail, Milkmaid braid, Braided bangs...
I wear ALL of them and I get so. many. compliments.

Really, whenever I am out wearing a braid people stop and say "Oh I love your hair" and I'm just laughing to myself because the main reason I wear braids is to conceal old, greasy hair. 

By far my favorite of them all is the Dutch Braid, its basically a French braid done inside out and it always looks professional and fancy even though I pull the heck out of it to make it look loose and sloppy!

To learn a dutch braid (on yourself or others! both have pros and cons) start with your hair divided down the middle, section off one side and begin at the root of the other side.

Break a small section of your hair into 3 sections (just like a normal braid) but instead of folding the hair over top of each other you're going to fold one piece at a time under the other piece.

This is really hard to put into words so see video below and feel free to google & Pinterest dutch braids, that's how I taught myself about 5 years ago!

I filmed this video as a test run to see how clear my camera was, I apologize that its not very focused or angled in the proper area but I thought this was a good start to see how I go about it and from here I can re-shoot and start uploading more videos of my personal hair looks :)

Let me know how it goes and send me any hair ideas.
I love watching hair tutorials and I get super invested in recreating my own 'dumbed' down version!

What to wear to a wine tasting...

I am attending my first Food and Wine Festival next week and I am already plotting what to wear! (?!??)

*This post is in partnership with PinkBlush

So unlike a summertime wine tasting, this is happening in the dead of Nova Scotia winter & indoors (thankfully lol).

Vineyard attire is so simple to me, a maxi dress, maybe a floppy hat, wedge sandals.
Boom, you automatically feel 10x more fancy the second you set foot on that holy ground.

But indoor?!?!? Wine & food?!?!
What do I wear to that??

Currently sitting at the top of my list...

This Royal Blue Bell Sleeve $52.

It's comfy, its casual, but can be dressed up.
See silver clutch, that's a vintage piece from my grandmothers closet. 

So, I am not 100% set that this will be the outfit but I do know that this will be the backup outfit.
I have some digging to do before I commit and when I say digging, I legitimately mean digging out clothes that have been holed up in my closet for wayyyyy too long.

See next:

This vest was a purchase from Target before they left Canada.
Yes, very sadly Target left Canada about 3 years ago???

It was a very painful goodbye for me, I loved Target!

I was looking at this adorable grey floral babydoll dress $51 and wondering how I could warm it up a bit for the cool weather when I saw this vest and thought it was the perfect opportunity!

I love the look of these pieces paired with some booties!
It melts the spring floral pattern into the gloomy Nova Scotia weather and makes me look cheery but not 'too extra' ya know?!

Anywhoo, I will be posing on Insta stories this week and featuring my other wine tasting outfit ideas.
So stay tuned!
And any advice, please I am all ears! (pun. hehe. see below!)

Earrings Forever21 Sale.

Happiness Breeds, Good Stories to Spread a Smile...

This week has been miserable... I came down with the FLU/STOMACH FLU.

I don't have the best health on a good day but at times like this I wallow in self-pity and would give anything to go back to my usual 'unhealthy' life.

It's really easy for me to sink into a state and cry about how unfair life is.

So, instead of self-pity... I am trying to spread something positive to pick myself up and maybe you guys too!

To be honest, I searched 'Happy stories this week' and well, they're harder to find than you may think!

The 'News' loves to share doom and gloom while skimming over the bright spots.
And this is the first in this series so I didn't think to prepare and pay attention to happy things throughout the week, but because I would like to keep this happiness coming I'll start to keep my eyes open for the 'Joy'.

And if you come across anything send it my way!
I would love to start a weekly 'Recap the Smiles' segment.

So when your face looks like this^
You can come here read, laugh & share.

Most of what I will share this week comes from Elliott!
I know he's my child and every parent is biased thinking their kids are just the funniest, smartest, cutest little things on earth... (guilty!)

but I feel like you'll get a laugh or at least a smile out of these too!

I slapped Elliott's supper down in from of him on his table and walked back into the kitchen with only seconds to spare before Noelle's cries begin (because I allegedly abandoned her) when I heard:

"Thank you for making me my supper Mom."

Super nonchalantly.
I said "what?"
(which I should not have done as it probably motivates him to ask what?? 500 times a day)
and he said "I said thanks for making my supper" in the sweetest, most content sounding voice.

Driving home from daycare I always quiz Elliott about his day.
I like to test his memory and ask who was there, what was for lunch, etc.
This day he said:

"I love my friends at Curries and they love me. 
Declin loves me."

I asked if Declin was his best friend?
he said:

"No, Baby is."

With the happiest of tones and grabbed Noelle's little hand in his.
He always calls Noelle baby or "my baby".

Driving to Mcdonalds a few days ago, I went to turn right on a red light.
Elliott loves to point out the colours of traffic lights and knows red = stop, yellow = slow, green = go.
When I turned right on red I heard him say:

"No Mom! You have a red light!" 

It was so hilarious, I had to explain sometimes you can turn on red lights.
And he says "Ooooooh." like he completely gets the rules of the road.

He loves to follow me around and while hot on my heels the other day I stopped and looked at him. He gets embarrassed and emotional sometimes so he said:

"Don't look at me."

I said why not? He said:

"I'm just following you because I love you too much, I love to be with you. I love you too much."

Later I told Nick what he said and as much as we whisper he hears everything so from behind us we heard:

"Stop doing that Dad. Stop laughing at me, I don't want you to laugh."

We try not to let him know when we are talking about him because we don't want him to be embarrassed but I swear we would have to go to another planet to get away from his prying ears.

I have been obsessed with watching SimplyNailogical lately and all things Nail Polish.

I love her crazy humour of course, that she's Canadian and most importantly how wicked smart she is.

I was half watching this video and once it hit the 11:30 mark I heard her talking about strong, smart women and how she was asked if she was going to University to get her MRS degree...

How that only pushed her harder.... (I started crying) and you would have to watch the video yourself to get a real feel for it but I was in tears.

I am a sucker for a motivational talk!

Twin sisters give birth the same day! ^ Y SO CUTE! LUCKY BABIES. 

Simple Super Bowl Party Rice...

It's almost time guys!!!
The biggest day of the year!!!

SUPPPPPPPPPPPPPER BOWLLLLLLLLLLLLL SUNNNNNNNNNNNNDAY!!!

You know I am kidding.
I married a man with almost zero sport fan tendencies on purpose people.
I was looking for someone who liked sports but didn't invest too much of life into sports so I would never have to sit and stare at people chasing things on the tv screen. (golf balls, basketballs, baseballs,  footballs, hockey pucks, tennis balls, so many balls! So much chasing! why?!?!?)

We won't be watching the Superbowl.
Actually, that's a lie, we will be watching the halftime show, the halftime show I can get behind and snacks!

I live for food and celebrities so I decided to make a last minute Superbowl post and milk this very pinnable image for Pinterest.

A few weeks ago I made the bacon wrapped water chestnuts (you can find that post by clicking here) and had some extra water chestnuts so I made my favourite rice recipe.

Everyone was interested in the recipe but Nick finished off the rice before I could photograph it so I made it AGAIN this week. It is really good and so easy so I'm not mad about having it twice!

I've been making this rice for years, it's almost foolproof, stick to the basic bones but make it your own!

Let me know what you add so I can test it out too.
Enjoy!

BASIC BROWN RICE WITH WATER CHESTNUTS

- 2 cups Uncle Bens converted rice
- 3 1/2 cups cold water
- 1/4 cup soya sauce
- 1/3 cup corn oil (I have substituted veg oil)
- 1 package onion soup mix
- 1 can of mushrooms (I prefer fresh but I am all about organic living ;)) (JK) (but yes either works)
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts (I've used whole too but I love the crunch! you could even slice the whole if you feel ambitious)

Here is where you can get wild!
Sometimes I add cooked chicken, roast beef, steak, ground beef, literally any cooked meat would be fine.

Mix all together in a casserole dish and bake on 325 for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes.

This covered dish in the background is what I use, I keep the cover on and stir once just to check on it. This dish was given to me from my mom years ago but any covered casserole dish should be fine and if you don't have one with a cover, try tinfoil. 

And that's it!
It keeps really well and is a great addition to snack food or meal time.
(also so easy for potlucks!)

Further pictures just for cuteness.
Enjoy game day!

Can a Brother/Sister combo still be best friends?...

I know what you all are going to say "YES. I am so close to my brother omg."

But really, I think this is a very valid question, brothers and sisters???
I struggled so hard with the thought, what combo of kids would I have?

Before I had any, I could only imagine myself as a girl mom.
I love 'girly' things (I'm going to use gender stereotypes in a very light-hearted way in this blog, it's not to be taken the wrong way. Girls can play with trucks, boys can wear pink. just humour me in this post ;))

Of course, I could see myself braiding hair and buying frilly dresses.
Then when I was expecting Elliott the ultrasound tech said "its a boy!", right away my future changed and I saw myself as a 'boys only' mom.

I don't know why.
Maybe because I wanted so badly to be a girl mom, I thought the universe would spite me.
All I could see was myself with two boys, even when I let my mind go to the thought that maybe then we would have a third... BOOM. IT WOULD BE ANOTHER BOY.
I just knew it.

When we had the ultrasound for Noelle I was ONLY looking for boy parts, I knew what to look for and I knew it would be there.

But during the ultrasound I got confused and so did Nick, there wasn't really a boy to be seen but you know those ultrasounds are like unscrambling scrambles so we couldn't be sure.
The Halifax hospital doesn't tell you the sex so you have to wait to see your own doctor which can take days.

We left that appointment and we were about 80% sure, it was a girl. 

WHAT.
I had prepped myself for life with 2 boys, it was going to be great, they would be best friends and love me the most (because boys love their mamas) and I would be great friends with their future girlfriends/wives, I would be the best mom-in-law, we would go grocery shopping together and I would be involved but not too involved, no one would label me 'the annoying MIL'.
Nope.
It was going to be adorable.
Very Victoria Beckham (before she had Harper lol).

BOOM.
SCENE OVER.
NOW WHAT.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured my life with 1 boy and 1 girl.

Do brothers and sisters even get along??!?!?!?!?!

I know you all will tell me they do and you're so close to your brother/sister.....
but how do I trust that?!?!

Someone needs to send me text screenshots and selfie photos so I can start to understand how a boy/girl sibling set up is going to work.

Right now they love each other SO much.
I'm not even sure they could love each other more if they were the same sex.

Because they are different but the same it kind of gives them each a special place in the family, I always tell Elliott he's the best boy ever and Noelle is my best girl.

He loves being her BIG brother and is so helpful and protective of her.
He still wakes up every morning and asks "wheres my baby?'

He wants to see her asap and when we joke about giving her back to the hospital he gets very upset and says "we can't because I love her and shes my sister".

Its all super cute!

But the future!
What does the future look like and how do we keep them being BFFs?

They're almost exactly 3 years apart so I hope they will have enough in common to keep close, but what else should I do to guarantee it?

Put them in similar sports/activities?
Buy one of those t-shirts that you put them in when they disagree (this is our getting along t-shirt) maybe if I force them to physically be close they will be close in spirit and minds?

hehehehehehe.
You know I'm kidding but really what is the best approach for the brother/sister bond?

Family suppers?
Family time in general?
Even when you have a sister/sister, brother/brother pair there's obviously no guarantees they will become or stay friends, but if you have any inside info on this, please send my way!

I'm genuinely curious as to how this will play out.
Only time will tell!