2017 was a an incredible year that will be hard to beat, we had a lot of exciting and life changing things happen this past year! Here are my most favorite.
1
The birth of our second son, Jettler Lee Chadbourne. He literally came rushing into this world and we could not be more in love with our little blue-eyed bubba, Jetski, McDreamy, Mr. Cute, squishy, our little handsome, our Jett! He’s the sweetest little guy with a million dollar smile. He’s so loved and admired by his big brother and we couldn’t picture life without him. We love you so much Jettler!
2
Launching Bourne Voyage! I can honestly say I have never been more proud of myself when it comes to putting my self out there. Whether anyone reads this blog or not I have taught myself so much through this experience and I am so excited for whats to come! Blogging has been my dream for almost 10 years but I was always way to self-conscious to actually do it. My husband deserves all the credit, he’ been my backbone from the beginning and he’s endured way too many late night conversations about blog names haha but he’s always been my biggest fan and kept pushing me to be me! I’m so grateful for him because I have discovered so much about myself through launching this blog! I’ll write a post about my journey but if anyone reading this has a dream to do something out of their comfort zone and you keep talking yourself out of it, my advice is to take the leap, don’t wait one more second! Don’t let another day go by, I wish I would have started blogging 10 years ago.
3
Launching our Photography business! Who knew I would ever go into business with my best friend?! From what started as a hobby for both of us to people messaging us and asking us to take pictures… I’m so in awe how great God is and his plan for our lives. Getting to work with my husband doing what we both are passionate about has been so much fun and so rewarding. We love being able to capture moments of other families/couples and giving them photos to cherish for a lifetime.
4
Kyden’s Maturity – Every new milestone, every new word/sentence, his independence, his determination, his new confidence to be a bit of a dare-devil, his maturity as a big brother! Sooo many exciting new accomplishments for our bubba! I love all the small and big moments and love watching along the sideline cheering him on. He’ constantly amazing us with his knowledge, he knows all his colors, numbers 1-10, is so good at putting puzzles together and is constantly expanding his vocabulary. We couldn’t be more proud of our little guy!
5
Our family trip to Banff, Canada. I’ve posted a bunch of posts on here, if you haven’t seen them I definitely recommend going and checking them out, I’ll link them below. It was by far our most favorite trip to date (minus the traveling chaos to get there which I also talked about in the posts hah)
I’ve been going back and forth on whether to post Christmas pictures because it’s January and I was terrible at finding time to upload them, however it was Jett’s first Christmas and there are too many good ones not to share! Better late than never, right?
We had 3 Christmas’s, first went to my parents in Canada which to get there it is the longest and most unscenic (is that a word?) drive ever! It’s about 12 hours with all our stops, literally driving in the middle of nowhere but it’s worth it when we get to see family and friends that we normally only get to see a couple of times a year. Most of the time when we travel to Canada we drive through the night… only because Kyden has always done better in his car seat when he can sleep the majority of the trip so it’s a win for all of us. Other wise like any 2-year-old he gets antsy and wants out. (me too Kyden… me too) We always dread that drive and I swear I have the worst weather luck when traveling, my parents actually joke about it all the time because it never fails that the week before we come up it’s beautiful there and then the day we leave we will drive through a blizzard on the way up, our it’s smokey from forest fires or it rains the entire time…. seriously it’s always something. And when we leave.. same story. I’m not even exaggerating, every time I travel it happens and those very few times when it’s beautiful out I’m like a kid on a sugar high so I take advantage of it and do as much outdoors as I possible can with the kids. This time is was soooooo cold, I mean -40 Fahrenheit at times… that is also -40 Celsius for my Canadians 😉 and that is not even counting windchill! It’s a giant freezer basically where my parents live. We were hoping to go outside and do some sledding and some outdoor ice skating at my brothers and sister in laws farm but it was way too cold. And if you ask Robert I’m always cold, which he likes to make fun of me for because I’m Canadian and I should be used to being cold so he always says he’s more Canadian than me.. haha
We had a blast seeing family and friends though, it’s always nice going home especially when it’s been while. I sing “Sweet home Canada” see what I did there 😉 I mostly sing it in my head… Kydens not a fan of my singing hahah Anyways I always get so giddy inside driving down my parents lane and walking into the house. Mainly because my mom always has the house smelling like heaven and decorated flawlessly. My Parents are actually in the middle of renovating part of their main floor but you would never know because my mom still made everything look so cozy and Christmasy (not a word but should be). I always get excited to my nieces and nephews, they are all growing up way too freaking fast and growing taller than me now too which just makes me feel beyond old and like I’m shrinking! I realized Aunty Stacey may not be as cool to them anymore mainly because when I act silly only the small younger ones laugh and the older ones look at me like I’m a weirdo which I do got a good bit of weird in me! Get me and my sister together and it’s just the best mix of weirdness, I love her! Thank goodness know one sees our texts messages! Back to Christmas army parents, I ate way too much of my moms baking. She seriously makes the best homemade donuts, they are like eating lays chips… you can’t just have one. Except when I look down and realized I ate a whole bag of lays chips I feel gross… but when I eat 6 of my moms donuts, I feel ahhhmazing! I’ve definitely realized that Robert, myself, and Kyden are donut freaks and I’m sure Jettler will be too because that kid loves to eat… A LOT !
We had our own Christmas as four when we got back home. I made waffles, played Christmas music and videotaped our sweet little Jettlers first Christmas with us as a family of four. It was the best, I love family time when theirs no schedule and you truly just get to relax and enjoy the moment. Thats actually part of my goals this year… to stop and be more present in the big but even small moments. I don’t wanna miss anything with the kids.
Literally the day after our own Christmas we headed to Robert parents which is another long drive but we were so excited to see them. We always hoped they would meet Jettler right after he was born but unfortunately they didn’t get to meet him till this Christmas. So it was soooo good to see them finally hold little Jettler for the first time (even tho he’s not so little.. love his chubbiness). Jett loved all the attention of course! Kyden was obsessed with all the cool wooden toys under their tree. Roberts grandpa actually made Robert and his brother these amazing wooden toys every year and it was really cool to see Kyden playing with them. I love when traditions or gifts like that pass down to the next generation. We had a great time celebrating the New Year with his parents and were so grateful for all the family time we were able to have over the holidays. However I think we were all travelled out.. I’ve never been more exited about getting back in our bed. Since all the traveling we have just been trying to get back on schedule and been playing catch up!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!
2017 was an amazing year for us and will definitely be hard to beat! However I’m always constantly setting goals throughout the year and love to keep challenging myself. Here are a few goals I’ve made for myself for this new year.
1. Be Present
I want to spend less time on my phone but I also just want to be more present with my family and in my everyday life. Sometimes I lose focus or start thinking of my million to do’s and I lose focus of the moment I’m currently in. Every morning when I get up I always feel like I have 200 things to do immediately rather than just letting myself be present.
2. Be Creative
Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck doing the same things over and over. I want to push myself to be more creative with the kids especially with planning out fun activities and trips with them. I want to more creative with cooking haha anyone else feel like you have your same old go to recipes and wish you had new ones but are too scared to try new ones? I always look at Pinterest recipes and think they look too good but get scared to try them out sometimes. And most importantly I was to be more creative with date nights with the hubby and making more time for us even if it’s just watching a movie together in our bed on our laptop with popcorn or playing cards and games. We are limited with kids especially since both of our families live far away so we don’t have easy access to babysitters.
3. Stay Positive
Easier said then done sometimes but it’s probably the most important one! Life can be hard at times but it’s important to take control of every situation and choose to react positive. I want to continue to work on having positive thoughts no matter what I face.
4. Try New Things/New Places
I’ve never been more of an advocate for trying new things until launching this blog. I get excited about new adventures and traveling to new places. Robert loves the outdoors and really wants me to go backpacking/camping with him so I may have to overcome my fear of bugs and at least give it a try!
5. Relationship Growth
I want to spend more time focusing on the relationships I have with God, hubby, kids, family and friends. Our life seems to keep getting busier and busier but I want to make more time for my relationships because without them I’m nothing, they are my everything!
What are you goals for the year? I’m really exited about this year and can’t wait to see what it brings! I have a lot of new blog posts coming up that I’m so excited to share with you guys. From my favorite beauty products that I use all the time to cute outfit ideas for Valentines Day so stay tuned Xo
