Holidays - building anticipation

Home made Advent Calendar created and hanging - check
Tree up and house decorated - check
Christmas lights up on our new house - check
Christmas picture/cards/gifts mailed - check
Family bake day - check
Claire and Simon's church Christmas concert - check
Gifts bought and wrapped in fun fabric bags - check
Extra baking (just because) - check
Staff Secret Santa organized and executed - check
Picture of the kids with Santa - check
My contributions to our families Christmas dinners - check

Now, bring on Christmas!!!!

I love Christmas and all the build up. I love the cooking and the traditions and the looks of glee on my kids' faces when they realize all the special things coming their way. I love planning and creating marvelous things. Other then my cinnamon bun dough and a few stocking stuffers to wrap, I think I'm done. Now, I can put my feet up and drink my cup of eggnog. Tonight, Trevor and I will sit by the fire and watch a movie. Now, I'm on holidays. :)

Claire is 2!!!

My sweet baby girl is TWO! She lights up our lives with her giggles, cuddles and kisses. She's our easy-going little Miss.

We had 25 people over last week for our traditional birthday brunch. We are so lucky that all of our family lives in town and are all so lovingly invested in our kids' lives.
Claire decided on a Peter Rabbit/blue ball (Zooble) themed party.

I still can't get over how invested I get in my kids' parties. I love fancy treat bags for guests, great cupcakes, a toy that matches the theme and a cool invite. That's on top of house-cleaning and cooking. I love doing these crazy things because it's such a tangible way for me to show love to my kids.

Man, my Claire is so lovely - I'm so excited to see what age 2 has in store for her.

DNA for b-day craziness???

These days, it isn't hard to find an article or a TV show about scientists discovering a new gene for just about any and every behavior.

I want to know what gene makes mothers go a little crazy about birthdays? Seriously, what, in the evolutionary process (mirco-evolution, folks, I'm a creationist) makes mothers spend hours and hours and hours decorating cakes, shopping for and wrapping the "right" gifts, making elaborate invitations and decorations, cooking large meals, blowing up zillions of balloons and having huge parties for their children. Just look up birthday party ideas on Pinterest for a sampling of Mommies gone crazy.

We celebrated Simon's 3rd B-day and I spent hours on his party. I LOVED it! It gave me such great joy to see his little face light up when he saw his balloons, his bug cupcakes, his cool presents and all his favorite people gathered together. I don't know who was more excited, me or him. He's only 3, will he remember it all? Probably not. However, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

I wonder what is in my DNA that makes me do this and gives me so much pleasure for it?

Yep, I'm weird. Maybe I've got the excitable Momma gene... sigh. Thanks for the cool ideas, Hello, Cupcake!

Hospitality (and a lot of parentheses for some reason)

When we were first married, Trevor and I opened up our house to guests regularly. Need a place to stay? A meal? A cup of tea? We were happy hosts.
When Simon was born, our house turned into a whirlwind of baby stuff, dirty dishes, quick to cook foods and one tired Momma. Obviously, Claire didn't really improve the situation (although, she totally makes our life awesome... as does Simon).
Needless to say, I lost my hospitable touch.
Claire is now 15 months. She eats really well (albeit messily). Simon does well too. My kids give me time in the afternoon (mostly) to clean and prepare. Even though I'm tired, I am sleeping through the night (bliss).
I am excited to host people again. We're trying to have more people over to our little home. It's a lot more work but, it's so much fun to prepare an array of good foods and teach our kids about being hosts.

On the Eve of Love

Tonight is the eve before Valentine's Day. I'm happily baking heart shaped sugar cookies. Simon and I coloured his valentines yesterday. I have a sweet surprise for my sweetie and we're going to attempt our fancy crab legs tradition with the kiddos. Should be fun!

Tonight (as I ice sugar cookies), I plan on watching the Bachelor. It's true, this trashy TV show is quite an addicting vice for me. I've already written a post a few years back about why I find endless amusement in the fact that those very, very beautiful people wearing gorgeous clothes, going on incredible dates and traveling to exotic locales are so unhappy. They are unhappy because they don't have what I have: a soul mate... someone to "do" life with. Therefore, as entertaining as it is for me, I am a little smug. My eye-rolling husband will be sitting nearby tolerating my addiction just as I tolerate every pro-sports season that plays across our TV screen. This, folks, is true love. :)

Tomorrow, we won't be wining and dining, dressed to the nines at a fancy restaurant. Instead, I will watch the man of my dreams play, snuggle and bathe our kids. Then, we'll probably snuggle up and watch nothing much on TV and daydream about our "Someday House". This, Ben and Bachelorettes of 2012, is how love looks in real life. It's pretty sweet!

Happy Valentine's Day, folks!

Smooth

When I started back to work, I was a little unsure about how to do lunch. I knew I had a 15 minute window when my classes would end, I would prep and clean up and be out the door to pick up the kids. I did not want to waste any of my precious time walking to the other side of the school (staff room) to toast a bagel or warm up soup (my usual go-to lunches). Also, I wanted something healthy and easy to take with me in the car.
No, I don't want to eat sandwiches... too many carbs and I ate too many when I was in school.
I decided to try flavoured canned tuna. There's plenty of good flavours and I would also bring some Triscuits along (as well as a yop-like yogurt drink). The tuna always tasted good and always filled me up. Unfortunately, every single time I opened up a tin, I felt like I was opening up cat food. Most days I managed to swallow my gag reflex but, it was hard to shake.
My brother, Tim, is in a similar boat. He travels between his two pt. time jobs (teaching and pastoring) at lunch. His solution to lunch is a smoothie. Yum!
Now, I drink a delightful blend of fruit, yogurt and milk every day. I add honey as a natural sweetener and a dash of cinnamon. The cinnamon is the best part. I actually crave it all morning until smoothy time.
Best work lunch ever!
Add a granola bar (nuts = protein) and an apple (honeycrisp, please) and I'm a happy girl!

Generous

We have an overproductive crab apple tree in our backyard. I don't do a thing to it (except pick the weeds at it's base) and it always wants to give me a million little crab apples.
One year, I made some desserts with the apples. Most years, Trevor has lawn mowered them. Some years, I pick them up so as to not attract the wasps.
This year, however, Simon has discovered them.
"Simon pick apples."
"Simon eat apples."
"Simon is super apple man."
"Simon give apples to Baby Claire."
"Momma pick apples off tree for Simon."
"Momma say Gross."
"Simon Gross."
He eats so many apples (rotten and not rotten) that some of his diapers have been atrocious.
Claire likes to bite hard and suck. She's teething and this seems to make her happy.

I get to pick weeds in peace.
Thanks, crab apple tree. I'll miss you, your blooms and your fruit when we move to the Someday House.

What's in your freezer?

I spent this past Saturday and Wednesday baking with both our families. Now my freezer is full. Call me crazy but, I love it. I think it's the quality time with my ladies (and my sweet tooth) that I enjoy the most.
Enjoy the pics - looking is calorie free! :)

(My fav pic is the one of Claire sleeping in a laundry hamper.)

Mrs. Dash

I LOVE to cook... when I have time. When I don't have time, it's a huge weight that looms over my head all day. My brain constantly asks what will I make for supper that's easy and quick and nutritious and yummy and that Simon will like?
This fall, I plan to be quite busy. Full-time teaching + last 10 weeks of pregnancy + house showings + hopefully packing and moving = brain overload.
SOLUTION: Dashing Dishes
On Monday, I went to a community center (which happens to be in the area of town I really hope we'll be moving to), donned my apron and bandanna and, in just 1 1/2 hours, I prepared 16 yummy, nutritious, quick and easy meals for my family for the fall. These scrumptious meals include: spinach pasta bake, Asian bistro chicken, fiesta pulled chicken, Greek shrimp, Korean style ribs, melt in your mouth beef, 2 Mexican pizzas and marinated chicken.
I was tickled that I was able to use ingredients I would never buy (rice vinegar, Hoisin sauce, pickled ginger, frozen spinach, etc.) I'm salivating at the thought of this month's meals.
On top of all that, I also bought a super large pork tenderloin at Costco, cut it into slab and wrapped those slabs in bacon. I have 16 of those little morsels of goodness in my freezer too.
I think my freezer is ready for me to go to work. (It'll be a pain to move all that food to our new house though.)

No more Baby Goo

I started feeding Simon baby cereal in the beginning of October. It started okay but then, it led to a battle. He hated his cereal. He hated his purees. I thought I'd never get him to eat.
This past month, I gave up Baby Goo. I bought a food mill and a baby feed bag (a mesh sack that you can insert all sorts of yummy things into that babies can chew and not choke). Simon eats what we eat... modified. He's happier, I'm happier and we're not fighting. Currently, Simon LOVES banana, whole wheat bread, stew, rice and Grandma Tilly's lentil soup. I'm trying to be discerning with what I give his little tummy. I think he appreciates the variety.
Hmmm.... just another way that Simon operates that's just not "by the book". He's definitely an opinionated little fellow for someone who can't talk.

Averted

We had a "maintenance check" on Simon's feet today. Our Doc seems to think they're doing fine. Whew! Just the thought of casts makes me cringe. I really hope that we've left that part of our lives behind!
In other news:
-Simon has started solids. He's had rice cereal and banana. It works best if I let him "drink" the cereal from his bowl with some help from my spoon. Silly boy!
-We had two fabulous Thanksgiving feasts. We only had to leave one early due to a pending meltdown.
-Simon has 2-3 out of 7 good nights a week (getting up only once or twice). This is nice.
-I loathe putting on our jackets to go out... such a rigmarole!
-Trevor had a 4 day weekend. He was able to come swimming with Simon and I. :)
-We actually had people over, after Simon was in bed. It was fun! (We miss hosting.)
-There's too much snow on the ground. I hope that it melts this weekend!

Lastly, I think we are going to Vancouver. I appreciated all your helpful comments. Anonymous... I take what you said pretty seriously. This is my worry with Simon. However, I'll be sad if I didn't at least try.

Cabin Fever + Dashing DIshes

We're feeling a little cooped up at school right now. My poor mod squad... the garbage truck was such a big hit. They couldn't keep their eyes off of it while we were trying to read Ender's Game.
The kids are starting to get anxious and excited for spring. The parking lot is mud soup and the sun is just tempting us to skip class and hang out outside! (I just have 14 days left until Easter break and I don't plan on going back....)
The first day of spring is coming up this week. Let's hope that that actually means we get some warm weather.
Same kind of thing going on at home. Fergus is demanding outside time as much as he can get.

On a whole other note, I participated in my first Dashing Dishes last night. It was awesome. It's a meal assembly company. They have everything all prepped and ready to go in stations. I registered for 8 different meals in advance. Then, I went from station to station, gathering ingredients and putting them into freezer bags. I split all 8 of the meals (a full meal serves 6 people - a little much for our little house) and now, we have 16 ready to cook meals in our freezer. Yummy! Tomorrow, we're having Tim and Karri over for our first Dashing Dishes dining experience. :)

Valentine's Tradition

I think we started a tradition last year for Valentine's Day. Rather then go out for an over-crowded, over-priced, "rush them through" meal, Trevor and I stayed at home and cooked crab legs. They were easy to make and absolutely DIVINE. I'm salivating at the thought already. Last year, I made the crab legs, some rice and a nice salad. We didn't even touch the rice or salad, we were so taken with the crab.

We had another ultrasound yesterday. It's fun to see little Thumper squirming around in me. It's always a mind blowing thought that, as I sit and type, there's a little person growing and moving in me. We're still predicting the end of April (~23rd or 24th). Just 10 weeks away! :) Now that I'm starting to get bigger, I can see why pregnancy becomes a little uncomfortable!

Trevor finished off his job with AgStability yesterday! :) YEAH! On Monday, he starts his new job as an H.R. Generalist for ServiceCanada. He's filling in for a mat. leave but, we're sure that this will be the begininnings of his career in H.R. We're thrilled! :)

Yummy...

Tonight, I'm making roast (organic, free range, locally grown) chicken from http://www.farmgatefood.ca/. It was going to happen last night and didn't... ah well, nothing like a slow Sunday for a chicken dinner. It's a good way to celebrate the Riders' win.

Tonight, we're going to rock out to FEIST! I took a good nap. This is the latest I've stayed up in a while. I'm pumped!