Rustic wedding bells!

A bit out of order in my time-line here....welcome to pregger-hood!

At the end of August, my sister V got married. It was a small wedding, but classy and sophisticated with a touch of rustic je-ne-sais-quoi. Actually, I know quite well what gave it its rustic feel. V and K, her now-husband, are a very creative couple!

The ceremony and reception were outside at Stonefield's near Carleton Place. To add to the outdoorsy feel of being...well...outdoors, K made some awesome wooden 'troughs' to be used as coolers for the drinks they were serving!


The centrepieces were logs that had holes drilled into them. In the holes were candles! The place cards were half pieces of log that had a slit cut into them for the guest's name.

They even designed the lighting for the reception tent!

It was a beautiful setting for a gorgeous newly-wedded couple.....and if you ask me, I don't think we looked too bad either :)

J. Niles....travelling miles.

Back in April or May (it feels so long ago I can't really remember), J came to me with some news from work that they were forming a team to cycle 100 kM from Ottawa to Merrickville. The cause was for Cancer Research and he wanted to participate. The next day, J signed up.

Over the course of the summer, J did some practice runs of about 60 km and 70 km on top of the 26 km he was biking to work and back.

J's goal was to raise $1500. We each sent out emails to our coworkers, families and friends and we had quite a few people sponsering him. Unfortunately, J was just short of his goal of $1500, but the $1359 that he did raise is not trivial! His team as a whole reached their goal and that's way more important! J is a hero in my eyes!!! He's even good at doing the 'hero-stance'!

So yesterday, at the earliest time he's ever been up on a Saturday (5:30am!!!), I drove J downtown to the start line. The plan was for me to meet him in Merrickville and drive him and his bike home.....unfortunately, we both overestimated how long it would take him to ride the 100 km and I missed him crossing the finish line by about 3 minutes!!! Therefore, here is a pic of him rehydrating!

J finished his 100 km in a time of about 4 hours and 30 minutes. He put to shame the idea that "pffft, you can't ride 100 km on a mountain bike!" for there were so many participants on road bikes that he beat that day. Road bike-shmoad bike. All it takes is a muscular pair of legs and a hero mentality.

You did good, J!

New Brunswick Baby Shower

During our last few days in New Brunswick, my in-laws threw me a baby shower. Leading up to the event there were last minute preparations, a cake to order, decorations to get, balloons to pick up....they were going through all this trouble! At dinner the night before, I turned to my Mother-in-law and said "You know, it's ok if there aren't balloons.....you don't have to get all these decorations, I'm sure it'll be fine without them!" at which point J's sister turned to me and said "Um, Helen, this isn't about YOU!" implying this was my Mother-in-laws party! We all laughed.

Now, I write this because I find it touching that J's parents are sooooo excited. This is their first grandchild!! This little 'package' we are bringing into the world will be our daughter, but also a grandchild, a niece, a cousin, a second cousin, and in the future, a sister. There's nothing more important than family, and when J and I get bogged down by work and everyday little things, we have to remember that. This is today's lesson, boys and girls!

Saturday morning, on the first really rainy, yucky day, we went to Fred's Restaurant and had brunch. J's mom, sisters, aunts and cousins came, a couple of second cousins too, and we all ate together. There were a few games and prizes and everyone had a great time.

They ordered this awesome 'diaper cake'. It looked like a 4-tier wedding cake, but totally not edible. The tiers were made of rolled up little newborn diapers. Piglet was at the top because we have sort of gone with a Winnie the Pooh theme in our nursery at home. When the cake was dismantled so that we could fly it home with us, we had about 5 large Ziploc freezer bags full of diapers......so that should last us, what, 3 days?? Haha.



J's dad showed off his wood-working talents by making us an amazing 'dancing clock' (also, see the background in the Diaper Cake photo? That is one of his world-famous DVD cabinets!). Doesn't it look like Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast?? We can't wait to put the clock in the little one's room!!! We already have a spot ready for it when J's family comes up in October.

Thank you to everyone for their gifts and words of wisdom. I'm nervous about this huge next step, but hearing everyone's advice calmed me down a bit. I know J and I will get through it all....and if there's a day that we feel we can't (which will of course happen) we know we have so many people to turn to for advice...in Ottawa and New Brunswick!