#dreamsdocometrue – Notefull Living

Family trip to Mexico

Mexico If it seems like I was on a Vacation from blogging. That’s because I was just in Mexico with our whole family. This time last week we were heading back to the airport in Cancun to come back home to our very cold northern home in the Fraser Valley in Canada. It so happened to snow the week we got back.

This trip was a big first for me, I was just as nervous and excited as the kids.

So…Traveling with our family to Mexico. Well this actually included my husbands WHOLE family. Yup, it was a big trip. Lots of people.

Our family researched the trip from the beginning. Once the resort was picked out we found travel vloggers videos and watched all what we could find out. We were traveling with our kids and I wanted to be prepared.

The flight there was fine, getting to the resort was really good. No crazy driving or people hounding us at the airport which was surprising. We had lots of people warn us.

Getting to our room was good and even though there was a time difference we settled in pretty quickly. We got there in time for the buffet for dinner. We really tried not to buy the airplane bistro food, knowing we were headed to an all inclusive was worth the wait for food.

It’s pretty easy to fall in love with the atmosphere there. I loved the scenery, the pools and especially the beach. We didn’t clue in to wake up in time to catch the sunrise until our last day there. This was what we caught just before the sun broke through the clouds.

The Gardner in me wants to find out what this plant is? I absolutely LOVE the bright pink. The grounds where something else with all the tropical plants everyone. Plus the resident iguana that lived by our door.

Our second child was quick to comment his friends needed to come to mexico and visit us here. Although at the end of the week he was getting homesick.

Our family loved the ocean. Our boys were in and out of the water. We got our oldest for his birthday an underwater camera and we got some neat video of the fish in the ocean. My husband went snorkeling and got some video of the fish at the reef.

Our youngest didn’t know any different. It was challenging to deal with naps. She lived off watermelon and french fries at the buffet. I was excited to get this sweet picture with her by the ocean.

I learned a lot about going on a trip like this. My husband and I haven’t ever saved to go on one like this. We have focused and worked hard at buying a good family home in the Fraser Valley. Luxury trips like this weren’t an option.

IMG_0557 (1) There’s many stories and much more that I would share. There’s a more important post I will be doing about this trip once we get closer to summer.

Hope you enjoyed some of these shots of our trip. The resort was definitely nice. For me, it’s the scenery and the ocean that got me more excited then the luxury lifestyle the resort offered to give.

Yes, no cooking, cleaning, making beds for a week was nice, but it’s also great to be home.

Any suggestions as to where my husband and I should go for our 15th Wedding Anniversary?

Stay at Home Mom

This has been a childhood dream of mine. I wasn’t always a stay at home mom. If your thinking about making the change to do be one, I hope reading my story helps with that decision.

Here’s how I became a stay at home mom.

A dream is a dream, it’s healthy to dream. Dreams do come true, for me it came in the least way I expected.

I actually went back to work after my maternity leave for a complete year (in Canada). My job before my maternity leave was only contract, so I had no job to go back too. I ended maternity leave on a job hunt and thankfully got one. I worked for full year with having our son in childcare.

Here’s what happened next:

Sometimes life circumstances pushes you in a different direction, in the least way you expect.

I kept hearing over and over from family and friends, “you need to work to get that second mat leave”. Peer pressure, lots of it.

Long story short: We wanted to grow our family, we did get pregnant AND then we lost the baby at 17 weeks.

After many long months of grieving and attempting going back to work. We made the decision for me to stay home. Since growing a family was important to us, I obviously needed to stay home. My first pregnancy ended with a difficulty in regards to my health.

Life as a Stay at Home Mom, meant a BIG lifestyle change.

It’s a massive adjustment. We did learn I wasn’t really making any money with working and having a child in daycare. We would actually be losing money with 2 in daycare. Good thing on maternity leave I already was doing whatever I could to learn a more frugal lifestyle.

My miscarriage left me in a dark place and it wasn’t how I imagined being a stay at home mom.

Not to get all “listen to my sob story”. But this is a part of my story. It took moving out of our townhouse to a new home to really give a new and fresh perspective for our family, lifestyle and me being home. IMG_4269 - Copy

Being a “Homemaker” isn’t all, home baking and made from scratch, all the time. You can give yourself some grace when something is store bought. Or if you need a day to just REST, it’s OK.

When I mentioned it’s a big lifestyle change. I truly meant it. A big reason you resort to learning how to make things on your own, well it’s a whole lot stinking cheaper. Learning how to make a lot of my own stuff, lead me to reading blogs and watching lots of YouTube videos. I’ve been reading blogs for so long, I feel more confident than ever to be able to share my tips and experiences on here.

I’ve never learned to be more frugal. I thought my childhood growing up was frugal living.

What does my typical day look like?

39973006_425586547964896_1666949040337584128_n We now have 3 kids. Thankfully our oldest son is mostly independent, I love watching him learn. Still teaching our second son to potty train (its rough) and our little girl, just loves to give lots of smiles and is super easy going.

Some days I can make the yummy drop cheese biscuits (pictured above) to go with Sunday soup. Other days I grab a bag of cheese buns when I go grocery shopping.

If there was one thing I recommend if you are home like I am. Invest in a Kitchen Aid. I would NOT bake as much as I do if I didn’t have this on my counter. When I’m in a good mood, and want to bake, I run this thing a few times a week.

**Here’s my affiliate link for a Kitchen Aid.

Can I Bake, Cook, Clean, Sew, Mend Clothes, Cloth Diaper, Cut Hair and Have time for myself. Yes, but not all at the same time. I definitely do my best to do all those things but in the end give myself space to take some time “off”.

Being a mom there is no “Part Time or Full Time”, your a Mom “ALL the time”, in a good way.

Allow yourself a break. Even if that means when your husband walks in the door and you hand him the kid that’s been crying all day and walk out. You need to get away from the kids after a long day. I’ve done it, it happened one time that I had to GET AWAY. I’ve learned now how to decompress during the day. Remember when I said it being a big lifestyle change?

It does help that our oldest is starting to shift into helping more around the house. Yes, my husband is a HUGE help too.

Life is sure changing though since I first became a mom. Life with 2 boys is busy. Now there’s a lovely little girl in my life.

I’m not a perfect parent. I have friends and family that are parents that I look up to, they think I’m crazy when I tell them that. I’m always learning how to do things to make home life easier or flow better. There is lots of great advice and NOT great advice out there, be mindful of that. You just gotta figure out what works for you and your family as a mom.

What’s it been like for you? I grew up with a stay at home mom and it’s such a different world we live in today compared to what my mom grew up with and what my parents had when they raised me. We can always learn something from sharing our stories.

Now I’m making the transition to being a “work at home mom”.

Let me know if there is a topic you want me to cover?

If you made it to the end, Thanks for reading!

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** I’ll be adding products to recommend from Amazon. This helps with everyday living. What could you do with a little extra money?

I’ll also be adding pictures with Arbonne in use in my home. Pictured above is the Shea Butter Duo by my Kitchen Aid.

I have a public Arbonne Facebook page that your welcome to join to find everyday living tips and product offers there, send me a message if your interested.

You can also find my direct website link here.

10 Wedding Tips

I promise the nursery blog post is coming. I’m learning September and “getting back into routine” is a bigger task then I thought.

Until then I’ll share a family post with why September is more special around our home. Wedding Sept 12 359

It’s been 10 years since my husband and I got married. September 2018 has been a wedding month for us, this month is almost over. We have been talking about our dreams and goals that we are currently living.

YES, Dreams do come true.

We even watched our reception video (lots of fast forwarding), made a favorite meal, read our wedding bible verse and discussed our next dreams and goals for what’s ahead.

But, If you have been reading my blog then you know some of those future goals already and I don’t want to repeat myself.

This list I’m going to share are often the things we let our friends or family know when they are getting married. Everyone gives advice, but we’ve learned couples want to hear from those who have gotten married in the last 5 to 10 years.

So, here’s a list of 10 Wedding Tips:

1: It’s a celebration of you and your future spouse, it’s YOUR day. Wedding planning can get dramatic. I was one of three brides living under one roof to know how “dramatic” it can get. I’m just going to leave it at that.

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From experience here’s a few….

“Do’s and Don’ts”

2: Do your research for a wedding photographer. The one we wanted would have costed a good chunk of our entire wedding budget. Wedding photography isn’t cheap, do your research.

3: Don’t make your own veil. I thought it was crazy what they charged and what you got for the veil itself. 1/2 way through making mine I knew WHY. I love a good DIY , however no matter how much I did my best to secure the beads my veil was coming apart most of the day.

4: Do find a good rental company. We rented our table centerpieces. The rest was made by family or gifted. Our wedding arch is a part of my garden currently. I love decor and decorating but having the same of 20 plus table centerpieces can add up and you have to do something with it after. No, Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of what ours was.

True fact: Pinterest didn’t exist when we got married

Yes, I’m technically a “millennial”, pinterest would have been a great help particularly in this area. However, I do like that we got to use a lot of our own creativity for the decor. Their wasn’t much online back then for “ideas”.

Attention BRIDES: Someone I know locally has a business just for this and I wish her business was running 10 years ago.

If you live in the Fraser Valley, check her website Elegant Decor Rentals

5: Don’t make your own invitations or thank you cards. Just like the wedding veil that was time I could have spent doing other things. We had a “card making” party with family which was fun, but in the end was a big job. There’s lots of great options now that can still give that crafty vibe I was going for.

6: Wedding Car: I’m grateful for the car we got to use. Here’s the thing, it was a MESS. If your ever planning to lend your vehicle for a wedding. PLEASE, clean your car out. We unexpectedly got to borrow someone’s summer convertible before it went into storage.

Wedding Sept 12 349 I got a sunburn on our day, it was HOT out.

A convertible car was fun, but not when your feet can’t reach the floor boards from all the garbage.

7: Remember to write a proper “Thank You” speech for the reception. We didn’t pay attention to this detail and were fully caught of guard when we got called up.

Going to other wedding since our wedding we always joke and look at each other at what a good job the couple does when they list and name everyone, that helped make their day happen.

8: Wedding Cake:

Wedding cakes don’t always have to be wedding cakes.

This was one of my favorite of breaking the “wedding cake” tradition. We had homemade cream puffs done by my mother in law. Every time I see this picture I just want to eat some.

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9: Destination? No our wedding wasn’t, I’m not talking Mexico or Hawaii either. I can’t take credit for this.

One of our friends did this recently. Our wedding guest list hit 200, a lot of that is family. Our friends list easily was 300. So they chose to go to a resort a couples hours drive from where they lived. The capacity of the resort was much less and helped refine the guest list.

Dreams do come true. I’ve said this before. This wedding was BEAUTIFUL. The ceremony was on a frozen lake and it was SNOWING, during the ceremony. The name “Narnia” kept coming up. Just to give you an idea of how to picture this incredible day.

10: This tip isn’t actually wedding related but worth sharing. This was told to us before we got married, we did this and deeply appreciate the tip.

Go on a DATE just before the wedding.

One rule: No wedding talk allowed.

As I shared before, wedding planning can be dramatic, and obviously busy. This date just brings you back to the one person that you want to be with.

Marriage to my husband and I is a big deal. It’s a day that you start being a family. Your life isn’t all about you anymore it’s the loved one that you get to share it with.

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If your reading this and getting married, congrats!

Relax and Enjoy your day when it comes.

Have fun, be yourself.

I hope some of these tips are helpful.

This last picture, is one of our favorites from our wedding day. It’s “US”.

I remember thinking the photographer was crazy to ask me to pose like this, but I couldn’t stop laughing. First picture we framed and was on our wall right away.

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I’m hoping to now that a routine is starting to take shape at home to keep up with posting new content.