MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Merry Christmas everyone! It's been so wonderful seeing Luca experience it all and I can't imagine how next year will be. Hope you all have an amazing day spent with loved ones!
Thank you so much for reading and following along!!!

XO,
Laura

PRINTABLE CHRISTMAS GIFT TAGS

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Christmas is only 5 sleeps away friends!!! FIVE!!! Are you ready?? Today I went to Costco for the third time in a week soooo I'm pretty sure I'm as ready as I can be. The plan for tonight is to get my wrapping done and maybe watch Muppet's Family Christmas :)

 I absolutely love wrapping presents...it makes me miss the days I used to work fragrance wrapping perfume bottle after perfume bottle. Call me cheese but I always loved the fact that I was part of making someone's Christmas special...lols

Once again, I made you some printable gift tags to amp up your wrapping game. All you have to do is download the file, print off and then cut out and attach to your prezzies!
Scroll below to download the printable file.
(Want more gift tag options? Click here for 2015's and here for 2014's!)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE CHRISTMAS GIFT TAGS
(AS ALWAYS, FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!)

Merry Christmas you guys!!!

XO,
laura

PEACE AMIDST THE CHAOS

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One of my favourite Christmas carols is Silent Night (the other is O Holy Night sung by my dear hubby...get the album here!!) If you go to church on Christmas Eve, there is a pretty big chance that you will end up singing this.

My favourite moment from our Christmas Eve service last year was singing Silent Night by candlelight. Working in a church, Christmas is always a crazy time and for my role, Christmas Eve is always go-go-go. Last year I was around 16 weeks pregnant and I remember experiencing some anxiety and fears that something potentially was wrong. I remember trying so hard to keep it all together but inside I was a basket case. 

I remember grabbing James right before he had to go on stage to play and making him pray for us and the little one growing inside. I felt better after prayer but was still holding onto all the anxiety and fear.

But then comes the time to sing Silent Night. Like magic, the lights come down and 1200 candlelights appear. The image alone could bring you to tears. And then we began singing...

Silent Night , Holy Night.
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon virgin, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in Heavenly peace.
Sleep in Heavenly peace.

In that moment, his Heavenly peace came upon me. I couldn't do anything about the situation but I could trust him. I could choose peace amidst the chaos.

It gets me thinking about Mary. Nothing about her situation was peaceful. Donkey ride at 9 months pregnant, about to give birth and there is no room at the inn, giving birth in a barn/cave and then laying your baby in a feeding trough with animals around yet I can't help but feel peace when I read this line in the gospel of Luke, "They (the shepherds) hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in the manger." In all of this, I see God showing us that his peace can and will show up in the hardest of situations.

God's gift to the world.... Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the prince of peace. I love the prophecy of Christ in Luke 1:78-79...

"Because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace."

As I went to sleep that Christmas Eve, I slept in Heavenly peace. I didn't know what was happening in my womb but I knew God was at work and I could trust him.

I made this print for Luca's room and I have been praying/singing Silent Night over him for awhile now. My prayer for him (and you and me!) is that he would sleep in heavenly peace no matter the situations around him. Life can be crazy, chaotic and sometimes extremely hard but I want him to know that there is a God who loves him, and is at work, even when he can't see it. 

DOWNLOAD ALL IS CALM HERE
DOWNLOAD SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE HERE

So whatever your circumstance may be, my prayer for you is that the peace of Christ would meet you amidst the chaos. Things may be crazy but hold on to Him. He is faithful, he is at work and he loves you.

and ps. everything worked out with Luca, I had some fears that I was leaking some fluid (and it could have been happening) but there was nothing I could do that early on except trust in God...thankfully everything seemed okay and at 39.5 weeks I started leaking again, a small tear was found and at 40 weeks, out came Luca! (Read Luca's full birth story here!)

XO,
Laura

LUCA THE LION // 6 MONTHS OLD

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LUCA AT SIX MONTHS

OH my goodness. We made it to half a year. We have a little boy who is SIX months old and sits up by himself!!! He's no longer a little bitty baby...he's turning into a little boy!! But he's still my little lion.

WEIGHT: 17.7 lbs
He's getting up there! Last month I used our home scale which overestimates a bit, so he probably gained just under a lb this month. I thought he would be waaaay heavier because he started solids but nope, still in the 17lb range! He's still on the 50th percentile for weight and height so he's trucking along well!

HEIGHT: 26.5 inches
He grew a half inch this month. When I nurse him, he feels SO long! Can't imagine what he'll be at 9 months!

WEARS: I've finally started to put him in 6-12 month clothing. I haven't packed up all the 3-6 month clothing yet, but I must because it's waaay too small! I'm on the hunt for plain white onesies but I can't find them anywhere. I bought him this bear suit and it's the cutest. Ahh, the Gap has some seriously cute things right now...like this sweater (which is on sale too!) and these Mickey pants!

SLEEPS: This month Luca's sleeping has been amazing! Most nights he goes down between 6:30-7 and sleeps straight until 7 the next morning. I know, it may change when he cuts a tooth or gets sick but I'm just going to declare that it will stay this way ;) And ps. I still wake up in the middle of the night to check on him/go pee!
We finally got a video baby monitor where we can see him at night and it is the best! We used to use my ipad and then connect it to one of our phone's. It worked great but you couldn't see the video at night and I had to keep my phone in our room (we're really trying to not use our phones at night and not have them in the bedroom!) A couple weeks ago Luca started rolling over in his sleep and I got soo freaked out and convinced James we needed a video monitor. It's been so great though! I would find myself checking on him in the middle of the night and sometimes opening his door would wake him up (oops!) Now all I need to do is turn the monitor screen on and I can stare at his sweet sleeping face. #best

Naps are going really well! I'm learning more and more that he's not an on the go type of napper. He's actually a bit of a diva when it comes to sleep...white noise, sleep sack, warm room, space to spread out...lols. 

EATS: And this month we started solids!!! Luca has been more than ready for awhile now so we started at 5.5 months and you guys, he is such a champ eater. He chews and hasn't gagged once! And HE FREAKING LOVES FOOD. For reals. He gets sooo mad when we can't feed him fast enough, it's hilarious. We started him on roasted yam puree and he loved it. He's tried pureed broccoli as well as a bunch of love child organic pouches. He did not like scrambled eggs so instead of giving eggs straight up, I mixed some with bananas, cooked it on a frying pan and voila, he loved it.

HIGHS: Awe, so many highs. Him meeting Santa and SMILING! His first food. Instantly stopping crying when mama holds him (oh my heart.)

LOWS: Breakfast the other day...mama didn't have her coffee and couldn't feed him fast enough resulting in screaming baby and one cranky mama.

PARENTING: Parenting has been good. James and I just finished season 1 of Parenthood and it feels like we're learning something every episode, HA. James had some time off earlier this month and it was so nice to just hang out at home as a family. He's so good with Luca and can put him down for a nap better than I can!! I was able to get out of the house a few times on my own during the day and it was glorious!

POSTPARTUM: Let's just say, Christmas baking is not the best diet...we'll talk postpartum exercise and diet next month ha! Oh, but I did start going to physio to work on my core, and since I started their exercises, my back has been so much better!

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: CHRISTMAS!!!!

Can't believe the next update will be in 2017!!!!

XO,
Laura

OREO + PEPPERMINT OREO TRUFFLES

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A couple of weeks ago I hosted a holiday baking exchange with a few friends and I made these delicious oreo truffles! (I'm embarrassed to say that ALL of the treats we made and received are now gone...#sugaraddict)

To add some variety, I made two batches. The first batch was covered with milk chocolate and oreo crumbs and the second batch had peppermint filling inside covered with white chocolate and crushed candy cane! They were both sooo good but my preference was chocolate all the way.

They didn't take crazy long but melting chocolate and dipping the truffles does take some time! Thankfully I had James to help me with that task!

Bring these to share at a holiday party and everyone will just love you.

OREO TRUFFLES

*Makes about three dozen truffles

Ingredients:

• 40 oreos
• 1lb (453 grams) of good chocolate. I used Bernard Callebaut from Thriftys in the baking aisle.
  If you're doing both flavours and don't want to double to recipe, purchase 1/2 pound of white and 1/2 pound of milk chocolate.
• 1 package of cream cheese, softened
• Peppermint extract
• Crushed Candy Cane

Directions:

1. Line two cookie sheets with wax paper and set aside.
2. Crush 36 of the 40 oreos in a food processor OR in a freezer size ziploc bag until the oreos are fine crumbs.
3. In an upright mixer (or by a large mixing bowl) mix crushed oreos and cream cheese until completely mixed. If you're making the peppermint version add 1.5tsp in at this point and mix in.
4. Scoop about 1tbsp out and roll into a ball then place on cookie sheet.
5. Place truffles in the freezer for about 15 minutes
6. Crush remaining 4 oreos or candy cane aka whatever you want the topping to be.
7. Melt chocolate. I don't have a double broiler so I melted in the microwave and they turned out great.
8. Dip truffle in melted chocolate then place on baking sheet. Immediately sprinkle topping on truffle.
9. Place in the fridge until ready to eat!
10. Enjoy!!

Happy baking!

XO,
laura