Gardening

So as it turns out I really like gardening! Yes, I've really only been a gardener for a couple of weeks now but it's way more fun than I thought it would be. When we moved into our new place I was a little intimidated by the huge garden in the backyard but decided that I was going to go for it, especially after my dad said he'd help me! So 2 weeks ago he came over to help me plant all my seeds and plants. I decided to try as many fruits and veggies as possible to see what would grow well and what we would use the most. The final list of everything we planted is quite long but here goes: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, goji berries, cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, squash, radishes, peppers, peas, beans, potatoes, beets, onions, spinach, kale, lettuce and asparagus. Not to mention the rhubarb, green onion, garlic, chives and tons of dill coming up everywhere that had already been there and the herbs that I planted in another part of my yard. 

After we planted I watched and waited. I was so excited to see progress that I couldn't keep my eyes of the garden. I had never spent so much time staring at dirt. But sure enough a couple of days later little signs of life started to peak through the soil. First the Kale, then the spinach and soon everything started to sprout! Now the garden looks like this:

It may not look like a lot but the little rows of green that weren't there before make me so happy! After we planted the seeds I had no idea what to expect the little plants to look like. I've never really seen where my food comes from and it was really neat to see how all the plants looked.

I don't have anything to pick yet but the tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes starting! 

I'm so excited to taste fresh fruits and vegetables and am very protective over my garden. I find myself constantly looking out my back window to make sure there are no little animals nibbling at my plants and have even run out my back door shouting and waving my arms to scare of an unsuspecting bird who I thought might be pecking  a little too suspiciously in the soil. I can really relate to Mr. MacGregor. How dare that Peter Rabbit sneak into his garden and help himself to food that didn't belong to him! So far I don't have a rabbit problem because Matt's Oma and Opa (the previous owners of our house) made the yard very secure. 
I'm hoping that I can keep up with the work that this garden will entail and that I can also keep enjoying it. Right now mostly all I'm doing is watering and hoping that everything keeps growing!

Spring Came Early!

I was completely surprised by the arrival of spring this year. Most years I am expecting spring for a long time before it actually comes but this year I was mentally preparing myself for spring to be later than I always hope it will be. I decided to just count March and April as winter, try to enjoy whatever cold weather we had left and only expect spring in May. 

I figured that was a pretty safe way of looking at things but then something magical happened. Spring came early! I'm a bit superstitious so of course I have concluded that spring came early because I was expecting it to come later (you're welcome everybody). So my plan is to do the same thing for years to come and I think we can bank on getting the same result! Right?! 
Anyway, the end of winter brought with it two fun trips for our family. We had a weekend at Hecla with Matt's family that was a lot of fun. Claire loved swimming in the pool and even enjoyed going down the water slide (which I was actually too scared to go down at first because it's covered and pitch black and I'm a little claustrophobic but seeing the courage of my 3 year old inspired/embarrassed me enough to face my fear).

We also got to enjoy a weekend at Falcon Trails with some friends and my parents were nice enough to babysit Claire for us so we just took Ben along and had a very relaxing weekend! It was fun to watch Ben enjoy playing with Charlie, who is only a couple of days younger than him.

Our time at home has improved tremendously because the milder weather has made it possible to take the kids outside more often! It is amazing how much a walk can improve your mood when you have been trapped inside for the last 3 months. The only downside to walks is when your 3 year old doesn't want the walk to be over and screams for half an hour after it is done.

 A perk of our new house is its proximity to Harbourview Park! One warm Sunday afternoon we took the kids and went skating and sledding. It was so much fun to watch Claire become more and more comfortable on the ice and we even got to go for a family sled down the hill. The only downside to this event was Claire crying when it was time to go and throwing herself on the muddy pavement of the parking lot. 

As Ben is getting older it is more fun for the kids to play together. Mostly Claire plays and Ben just laughs. It's a beautiful thing!

It is also fun to watch as each kid enters new stages in their development. Claire is able to play and entertain herself for long periods of time these days. She loves playing with water in the sink and pretending she is doing the dishes. She also loves to ride her tricycle around downstairs and pretend to do all sorts of things. I love hearing her talk to herself about all of her imaginary activities! One of Claire's biggest struggles lately is accepting when an activity she really likes is over (you may have already noticed this) and takes a long time to recover from the disappointment. This makes for many difficult moments throughout the day and, at times, a very frustrated mom.  

Ben is finding some fun new toys (mostly door stoppers) because he is able to roll around whatever room he finds himself in. Lately he is becoming frustrated by his limited mobility. He loves it when we hold his hands and walk around with him (this is mine and my back's least favourite stage, I was really hoping for a crawler this time around). He used to be very happy to jump in his exersaucer but now just cries when you put him in there because he knows he'll be stuck in there for a while. One of Ben's favourite things is rice puffs. He eats them ferociously, by shovelling them into his mouth as quickly as humanly possible and howling away as soon as there are no more left on his tray. Not very many actually make it into his mouth, as is evident by the copious amounts of puffs covering the eating room floor but practice makes perfect... I hope. He is also very excited about his ability to hold and drink from his own sippy cup. This little freedom makes him (and me) very happy. 

All in all, life in the Enns household is going very well. We are excited for the weather to get even warmer and to enjoy more spring activities together! 

Claire's 3rd Birthday

It was Claire's third birthday on Monday and we had a lot of fun celebrating. We had our families over on Sunday for a party. Claire was so excited! She has been talking about her birthday since summer and it is was so much fun to celebrate with her! Here are so pictures from her party.

Moving & Christmas

The lead up to Christmas was extremely busy for us because included moving our family to a new house! Although it was quite stressful at the time, I am excited to say that we are starting to feel settled in our new house. We are really enjoying having more space for Claire to run around and living in a quieter neighbourhood. Although, Christmas was a little overshadowed by the move we still managed to put up a Christmas tree and had fun celebrating with family and friends. 

It was our first Christmas with two kids and it was so much fun! It proved the saying, "the more the merrier" true. It was so much fun watching Ben experience Christmas for the first time and watching as Claire started to understand what Christmas is all about for the first time. Claire was very helpful in setting up the tree and Ben mostly just chewed on the stockings. 

Another thing that made this Christmas fun was the time we could spend with our families. Our kids were completely spoiled by their aunts, uncles and grandparents. It was really neat to see how our times together change as the little ones get older. I love watching as Claire and Ben enjoy their cousins and start making what I'm sure will be life long friendships.

We celebrated Christmas with just our family on Christmas morning. It was the first year that I had to get up early to fill the stockings, something I remember my parents doing (and sometimes forgetting to do). It was a lot of fun opening presents and spending time remembering Jesus' birth. 

The weather was nice enough that we could take the kids out for a walk around our new neighbourhood. We are finding some perfect sledding spots for Claire and enjoy the less busy streets and quiet atmosphere of our new area. 

Fall

Fall has been a very busy and exciting time for our family. Matt has been busy finishing up the house he is building with his brothers with their business, All Seasons Carpentry. He has been doing this on top of his regular work which means he has been working most weekends and quite a few evenings. In September we decided to buy Matt's Oma and Opa's house and to sell our house. It was amazing how smoothly this process went and we are so grateful for that. We are excited to move in December and to have more room for the kids to play! I recently joined Fukomoto Fitness and am attending 2 work out classes a week and am absolutely loving it! I have never been so enthusiastic about working out or looked forward to it so much!

The kids and I are enjoying getting back into a routine of going to mom's group and having regular play dates each week. Claire's favourite things to do these days is to play pretend. This mostly includes making a fort in the living room and being a lion (which of course is not fun unless Matt or I play with her). She talks about lions a lot and her and Ben even dressed up as lions for Halloween. 

Claire has also started to enjoy looking at books and pretending to read them (she has a couple of her books memorized now and will flip the pages to any book and recite the ones she knows by heart). She has also learned how to turn on her lamp in her room so if she wakes up too early in the morning we will often find her reading to herself in the chair in her room. 

Ben loves his big sister and any attention she gives him, which most days is a lot. It is amazing to watch them play together and enjoy each others company already. This past month Ben has learned how to fall asleep on his own for naps, to sleep through the night fairly consistently and to eat some solid foods. He loves his jolly jumper and bounces very aggressively in his bouncy chair. He is such a happy little guy and smiles easily at pretty much anybody! 

When the leaves were still falling I did a couple little photo shoots with the kids in our backyard and some of the pictures turned out really well! Here are a couple of my favourites.