Monday 20 May 2013

Birth Announcement


Not only do I have the most awesome best friend in the whole world, she also came from an incredibly kind and talented family! When Grant was born, Jaymee's sister Lauren offered to do his birth announcement. We absolutely love it and want to share it with everyone! The line on the top "It's very nice to meet you today" is the hook line in the song I wrote for Grant when I was pregnant with him. I wanted to add something a little more personal to it, and Lauren had the great idea of the line being in my actual writing.

We are so excited about our baby boy and want to share this excitement with everyone. Whoever would like a printed out birth announcement, let me know and we would love to mail you one!



Thursday 9 May 2013

Peter Katz

On April 26th, we drove to Fort Macleod with Jace and Vicky to see Peter Katz!

On the road to see Peter Katz!
Garth has been going to see Peter for years now and on the night we started dating he gave me a Peter Katz cd. After we were married, I had the exciting opportunity to sit down and visit with Peter and ask him anything I wanted about being a musician. I also opened for his show here in Lethbridge at The Slice. Ever since then, we have been dying to get to another Peter Katz show and the timing was always wrong. This time we made it to his show before we had to leave for the summer and it definitely didn't disappoint!

Not only did we get to hear a new Peter Katz original, Peter got to meet Grant. During the show Peter Katz dedicated a song to Grant called "Little One." Pretty cool to get a shout out at your very first concert!

Singing/Playing his song "Little One"
Grant was so well behaved and really enjoyed the music (for the most part). He even decided he was going to sing along for the last couple of songs, and by the end he was completely spent, a little too hot and ready to go home. We had such a fun night at Grant's first concert!








Tuesday 7 May 2013

Six Weeks Already?!

My baby is six weeks old today. That flew by way too fast!

I remember when Grant was a week old, I was contemplating my life and how much it had already changed, how much time I spent everyday just taking care of his basic needs. I knew it would be work, but I didn't realize how time consuming it would actually be! Grant decided early on that he was only going to be happy if he was in someone arms, which meant all I did everyday all day was cuddle him in mine. I thought about how one day, he wasn't going to be a "little" newborn anymore and he wasn't going to want to be held, I started to panic realizing how little time I had with him at this stage and decided that I was going to soak up every minute of it! So that is what I did. Looking back on the first 6 weeks of his life, I don't regret anything. Even though I was sleep deprived, still wearing maternity clothes(only now covered in spit up stains) and was stuck on the couch feeding him every minute of everyday, I look back and feel like those 6 weeks have been the happiest of my life to date. I love my little man more than anything and I feel like I have learned so much about him and so much about myself.


Things I have learned about Grant:



  • Grant's height and weight are in like the 95th - 97th percentile. At his one month check up, he weighed 11 lbs 13 oz, measured 23 inches and his head circumference was 40cm or 15 inches.
  • At six weeks old he is growing out of most of his 0-3 month clothes, wearing mostly 3-6 month clothing.
  • He looks exactly like Garth did when he was little. The Forsyth genes kicked all of mine in the face because there is not a trace of me in him anywhere. At least not that I can see haha.
    Garth- Grant
  • Grant is our little boxer. He has decked me in the face countless times, he even swiped my glasses right off my face a couple of times. He also makes those "uh uh uh" noises which makes it sound like he is trying to punch you.
  • Most of the time he hates his soother, he usually spits it out after 10 seconds.
  • After every single sneeze, he coos really loudly. He has definitely been cooing more and more over the past 2 weeks.
  • Grant has the funniest dreams. I love watching him sleep because he is constantly smiling and laughing in his sleep.
  • Grant can recognize mommy's and daddy's faces and voices. At one month old he started smiling at us.
  • Sometimes he will just be sitting there, looking around, and he will blow out some air with his lips, it sounds like a sigh.
  • I find him sleeping in the funniest positions all the time.
  • The first time Grant smiled at me, he was sitting on my lap while I sang the song "Hey Julie" by Fountains of Wayne to him.
  • Grant hates tummy time. He lies there helplessly and whimpers, refusing to even try lifting his head, unless he is on top of his daddy. That is when he chooses to be a rockstar and lift his head up and look at dad. It seems like he has been able to lift his head up since birth. 
  • Every time Grant wakes up from his naps, just like clockwork, he does the same stretch with the same face and it kills me every single time.

  • Speaking of faces, they are the best. He makes a great "stink face" like his dad, and he also makes this scowly face that seems to say, "Who do you think you are?" that could either make you feel really insecure about yourself or just make you laugh at loud.

  • He doesn't like being strapped into his carseat, so whenever you put him in, he puffs out his chest as big as he can, which makes it really hard to strap him in haha.
  • When you go to give him a kiss, he will turn his open mouth to where you are, it is the cutest :)


  • He hates being naked, and used to scream whenever you started changing him. He is starting to like bath time a little better, but still isn't such a fan of getting out of the bath.


  • He loves being outside! Anytime he is screaming, you can take him outside and he will calm down almost immediately.
  • His favourite place to sleep is against my chest. I don't get anything done, but I don't care!



Things I have learned about myself:

  • I don't need as much sleep as I thought I did. Getting through the day on a minimum amount of sleep was impossible before he came along.
  • I need to learn how to be a multi-tasker. I am the type of person who sets a goal and focuses all my energy on that one thing before moving onto the next. I suck at doing a million things at once and I am quickly learning that is a mom requirement. (And I only have 1 baby!)
  • I have separation anxiety that I need to get over pronto. Whenever he is not with me, I miss him too much. I am working on relaxing a little bit.
  • I am the master of avoiding being peed on, I just know when it's coming. Apparently it's a gift of mine.
  • I can do hard things. Being a mom is not easy, but it is the best job in the world.


Monday 6 May 2013

The Happiness Advantage

I feel like sometimes in life we take for granted the things that make us happy. Not just the things that make us the most happy, like our families, but the little things as well. I am definitely guilty of being sad about things that just don't matter and taking for granted the things that make my life enjoyable. For instance, the fact that we have a bakery right down the street from our house that makes the most delicious cinnamon buns and I have a husband that loves to spoil me even though I can no longer blame my pregnancy cravings anymore. Or the beautiful walk I went on the other day or the time I had to talk on the phone with my mom for over an hour.


A couple weeks ago, Garth and I were watching T.V. and came across a program called the Happiness Advantage. It was based on a book that Shawn Achor wrote called, you guessed it, The Happiness Advantage. We had heard about this book before and so we decide to watch the program. He talked about how we are all waiting to be happy. How we think that once we get our dream job or we lose all that weight we want to lose, then we will be happy. He shares different studies that prove that not only are happier people more successful in the world, but that they tend to live longer, and have significantly better health throughout their lives. He gives us seven principles that will help us think more positively, better our success in business and ultimately better our success in life.

After watching this program, I was so impressed with everything he said and I wanted to start doing everything he suggested right away so I could train myself to be happier, because who doesn't want to be happier?! Garth and I decided that we would pick one of his suggestions and work on that for a couple of months and see the changes it makes in our lives. And then continue on, adding more of his suggestions, so we can form those habits.

The first goal that we have set for ourselves is that every night before we go to bed, we grab our journal and we each share 3 things that we were grateful for that day and why. They have to be specific things that happened that day, not just cliche answers you give at the thanksgiving day table like "I am grateful for my family" but if you are grateful for your family, why? What happened that day that made you grateful for them? We have been doing this now for over a month and it has already made such an impact in my life. It had forced me to look for the positive things in my everyday life as little or as insignificant as they may seem. I know that as we continue to do this, we will both see improvements in our moods, our productivity and our lives will ultimately be happier!

Here is a link to the preview of his book/program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRy3QrRGFI

C'mon let's all get happy!