Lapier Christmas 2016

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas with your favourite people in warm homes around tables filled with good food. As I get older Christmas continues to be more meaningful as I grow in my faith and grow our family. This year will especially be a year to remember as we had Elizabeth christened. I wish every Christmas was on Sunday. Having a baby so close to Christmas really makes it easy to picture how Christ came to our world. It also reminds us that Christ is still present in our world through each child that is born.

This Christmas some of my loved ones were going through challenging times and this year it was more apparent to me than ever before how difficult the holiday season can be for some people. I hope to be more mindful of these situations going into the holidays next year and proactively try to provide some extra love into the lives of those in need.

I may currently be riding a Christmas high but I would like to begin working on some homemade Christmas gifts beginning in January, for next Christmas. I love giving gifts but I really struggle buying gifts sometimes as I sometimes wish the items had more meaning. So I have started to pin ideas and hope to get to work on my items soon. If I move ahead with this successfully I will definitely be sharing my journey as a "Christmas elf" on my socials.

All in all we had a blessed Christmas and I hope you did too. Please share any of your highlights or takeaways from your holidays in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

Merry Christmas
Love the Lapiers
PS at the very bottom of this post is a little video from Christmas eve and day.

 

Keeping Christ In Christmas | Vlogmas

Glitter Holiday Makeup | Vlogmas 2016

Lizzy Lately

Your two months old Elizabeth and in your short time with us, you have filled our lives with so much beauty and love! We are still figuring you out, your kind of a mysterious little creature but I like that about you.

You love to snuggle and prefer to be held.

You like to watch TV with your brother.

You sleep well in the evening.

You are intelligent.

You eat a lot.

Your growing well.

You have the cry of a lioness demanding attention when its needed.

You have an amazing smile and share it with us often.

You give your dad a hard time sometimes, he is always working hard to get your snuggles.

You renewed my motherhood adventure adding a new level of excitement.

I love you my sweetie girl.

Xoxo
Mom

Photos by Shannon Turner Photography

Sarnia Festival Of Lights | Vlogmas 2016

I'm Starting To Feel Like Me

Sunday I took both kids to church alone and as I clambered into the sanctuary late with a fussing baby and wound up toddler, I wondered if I was awesome or crazy.

I sat in the warm atmosphere and nursed Lizzy while I followed Luke with my eyes and relied on the kindness of strangers to be patient with me. Corunna United Church is very welcoming to young families and I don't ever really feel like I am an inconvenience but I still want my children to behave well.

Last week I was thinking so much about how having children changes you no matter how much you resist it, your still you but different. I didn't want to be different.

When I was pregnant with Luke I resisted the thought that I would become any of the motherhood cliches that I had heard. I had no interest in changing anything about myself. I thought I would be different, exempt from the realities of motherhood.

I was not exempt from the marks my children will and are leaving on my body mind and soul and after experiencing motherhood, I am eternally grateful for the transformations. This being said, I still want to feel like just me once in awhile. Last week I also had my first outing without any children in 7 weeks and the next day I was so refreshed, energized, and excited to spend time with my children. Balance requires effort but being me, makes me a better mother too. The night after my time out of the house, I popped Lizzy in the stroller and went for a jog. I was slow and my run was short but as I breathed in the winter air, I gained even more of myself back. Slowly I am beginning to feel more and more like myself. I will never be exactly who I was before children but I will always make time to spend with myself, connecting with the person I have become, accepting the transformations that are to come and allowing myself to just be me.

Christmas Makeup | Vlogmas Day 5

Meeting Chris Hadfield | Vlogmas Day 4

We had the pleasure of having our copy of the Darkest Dark signed by Chris Hadfield on Saturday December 3rd at Degroot's Nurseries in Sarnia, Ontario. The event was a hit, organized by the Sarnia Bookkeeper with roughly 1,000 books sold. Chris was scheduled to sign books from 1-3 but was signing books well into the evening. It was a proud day for Lambton County having such an awesome show of support and enthusiasm for one of our hometown heroes.

You can get your copy of the Darkest Dark - http://www.sarniabookkeeper.com/

Puppy Chow Recipe - http://momcrieff.com/puppy-chow-a-chocolate-peanut-buttery-sweet-treat/

It's The Holiday Season

This past weekend was filled with fun festive activities with family and friends and I loved every minute of it!

As we drove to our fourth event in two days, Ty was feeling a little tired and overwhelmed and while I can empathize with this feeling, I have a different perspective. As a child growing up we didn't have family really close to us so we only got together with our family for one big Christmas celebration. This celebration was always a great time but sometimes I wished we had more little parties leading up to Christmas day.

Now that I am married to Tyler and he has lots of extended family that lives close by, our family gets to enjoy lots of festivities leading up to Christmas day. I have also been fortunate enough to have a great group of girlfriends and we have started our own traditions getting our kids together for holiday activities  prior to Christmas day. Even though the holiday season can feel very busy I feel very fortunate to have so many wonderful people to spend time with during this time of year.  I would much rather be tired from spending too much time with loved ones then to feel lonely this time of year. This is also made me think about some people that may not be able to get out as easily and encourages me to reach out to those people and spend more time with them.

I'm going to try very hard not to let the holiday season tire me and simply enjoy all the moments that I have with the special people in my life .  This past weekend was a blast and I hope the rest of December is filled with many more special moments like the ones I was lucky enough to experience this weekend.

 XOXO
Audrey

Breakfast With Santa | Vlogmas Day 3

Elf On The Shelf | Vlogmas Day 1