A Forever Family

A Forever Family

Friday, 28 February 2014

Crawling and Winter Days Inside

On Family Day, B started crawling.  She loves the new found freedom.  She explores the house everyday and everyday it takes her less time to get into something she's shouldn't be.  She has a fascination with cords, with the bathroom and with the pantry.  AND with the gate at the top of the stairs! She's much more able to interact with her sister (and tear down whatever she builds).  Find Videos of her learning to crawl HERE, HERE and HERE.

This last month we've also spent a lot of our days inside.  We've had the flu, pink eye and a huge snow dump all at the same time it seems.  As a result we haven't spent as much time outside as K, in particular, would like.  When it was just snow, I made sure to take her out everyday when B was napping (B isn't so much a fan of sitting in the snow in her snowsuit).  But when pink eye hit, and then this flu hit me and B- our outside days were cut down significantly.  K has been a pretty good trooper and she's been trying to play with B more, so that's been cute to watch.  K has spent some time playing out in the big snow dump on our deck.  I even moved her whole kitchen out there one day at her request.  Video of K being dumped in the snow by dad, HERE.

I spent one weekend this month out at my parents' place.  Managed the ferry by myself with the two kids.  On the way there, they had pink eye so they couldn't go to the play area.  On the way back, I had the flu so I was counting down the minutes till I got home. 

8 months old today- almost ready to crawl

lazy Family Day with Dad building forts

Family Day snuggle time

Last Valentine's cake pop

Getting so big!

Since figuring out to crawl, she has realized she's trapped!

spends a lot of time here

CRAWLING

big girl sitting in the chair

falling out of the chair

giant snow dump

13 inches

Sister reading time

Saturday, 15 February 2014

Valentine's

This year we got two Valentine's celebrations.  We took the girls to Victoria on Wednesday to play with Papa and had the whole day to ourselves as an early Valentine's date.  We had lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine at the delicious Tacofino food truck.  Always delicious! We walked around downtown and I looked around a little Italian market for polenta and a better quality risotto rice than I currently have.  Success on both accounts.  We got our traditional Valentine's chocolates at Roger's.  We also walked the breakwater (first time since the guardrails were installed) before our movie.  We saw Monuments Men- we enjoyed it.  If you are interested in that topic manner and you thought looking at the preview that you would like it- you probably will.  If it's not an area you find interesting, you will probably think it's slow and boring.  For dinner we finally tried Pescatores.  I have mixed reviews.  I will try it again before passing judgement. 


Friday I successfully photographed my sweet girls.  First time K has ever sat so still for me.  Because we had our out of the house date on Wednesday, we planned an in home night together.  We put the girls to bed after their dinner of KD and had our own special dinner.  I whipped up a delicious bistro-inspired meal:
Appetizer: Bruschetta
Entree: Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs with a Red Wine Sauce over a Pea+Parmesan Risotto with Roasted Asparagus on the side
Dessert: Lime Tart
It was absolutely lovely.  So happy risotto is now something I can do.  Also, note to self and anyone else trying risotto in their own kitchen- arborio is fine and is most easily available BUT if you can get your hands on Carnaroli it really does make a difference and it's barely more expensive. (Recipes for this dinner on my Tested and Approved Pinterest board and soon probably my recipe blog).





We ended our night with a retro movie- "Say Anything".  We thought it was appropriate for the night and neither of us had ever managed to see it before.  Also, my Valentine's gift was a new kitchen gadget: a hand held kitchen torch.  Looks like it will be creme brulee for our anniversary....


Monday, 3 February 2014

Girls Update

Time for another update.  B will be 8 months this week and I feel the need to keep recording all the things that will pass quickly so I don't forget them.

B is on the verge of crawling.  She keeps getting one leg caught underneath her.  But she can scooch, reach and roll to get anywhere she wants basically.  She can get across whole rooms and into all kinds of trouble now.

I had to move B into a sleep sack because she was rolling so much around her crib that she couldn't sleep and would wake up in really uncomfortable positions.

She says dada and mama.  She also says gaga when she's happy and nana when she's not (kind of like "no no"). 

She's a non stop eater.  She loves solid food.  She eats almost, if not more, than K some days.  And she'll eat just about anything, even if she's not loving it.

She was sick with the roseola virus recently and discovered she does not like to take medicine.  K would drink it up and still does- will ask for more even.  B hates it.

B loves to sit for story or song time.  She's much more capable of sitting still than her older sister ever was (or is).

B has her two bottom teeth now- although they are taking their own sweet time coming fully in.  They've been there for a long time now but still are just peeking through.

K lied to me deliberately for the first time, recently.  She coloured all over her arms and shirt and when I asked her if she coloured on herself, she looked down at the ground and said "no".  She looked caught but wouldn't fess up right away.  Thankfully it was washable.  I tried not to laugh in front of her.  I didn't get super mad either.  I wish I had thought to take a picture before I washed it off.

K puts everything down for a nap.  All her babies and toys.  She even went into my cupboard, got a bread pan, and put that down for a nap.  Everything has to have a nap these days.

K is talking up a storm now.  Still doesn't sound super clear all the time but she tries multiple syllables and full sentences now.  She also started singing.  She will sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Popcorn Popping and Ring Around the Rosie.  She knows all the actions to those songs and you can hear some of the words when she does it.  Mostly it's gibberish but the tune is usually pretty good.

K is pretty much potty trained.  No more accidents.  It's just night time/nap time now.  That's hit or miss.  But we're not worrying about it.  If she wakes up on her own to go, we take her- otherwise we sleep. 

K has started drawing pictures now (or what she thinks are pictures).  It's all just scribbles but she tells me she's drawing suns and houses and bugs and butterflies and all kinds of things.  She always asks me to draw pictures of our family (including Aunty Tanya.)

She worships my sister Tanya and is constantly (like honestly everyday) asking about her.

If I give K a little bowl of cheerios as a snack I often come back to find  them all soggy.  She pours her water in them thinking it's the same as milk.

She often, out of no where and for not particular reason, fake sneezes.  NO idea what that's about.

She likes to play this game where she asks us who everyone is.  Like at the dinner table she will point to herself and say "mom? Noooo! dad? yes!" and then laughs hysterically because she's called herself dad.  She does this with all of us.  Asking if we're someone we're not and laughing when she or we say yes.

Super cute/sweet moment yesterday: while Cole and I were lazing in bed, K kept coming in and bugging us.  So we asked her to go to the living room and sing B a song.  She said ok.  But then we hear the guitar and Cole rushes into the living room.  He finds K sitting beside B with his guitar (actually it's a guitalele) strumming out a tune.  She calls Cole's guitalele "song" so when Cole asked her to go sing a song to B she went into his office, got his "song" and played for B.  It was pretty cute- even if it's not what we meant.


K putting her baby down for a nap


K always does it too close to B and this is what happens to her doll's nap time...

how she always sits now

I know it's dark- but look at that smile!


pretty blue eyes

B, K and my sister's son, J

Thursday, 9 January 2014

a 1/4 cup of Cocaine...

So last night I came into our ensuite bathroom to brush my teeth and I see some dirt on the floor and a dirty looking ziplock bag with something white inside.  Honestly, on first sight, I thought it might have been balled up baby wipes and I casually thought, "Hey, that doesn't really look familiar and where's all this dirt from?  Weird!"  So Cole comes in to brush his teeth, I back up towards the door and Cole mentions something about a small leak in the ceiling- he can feel a couple rain drops on his head.  I look up and see the ceiling fan has popped open.  The dirt now makes sense and of course, I look down at the baggie and know instantly it's cocaine- wouldn't you? :P

Our place is not a dump.  You don't walk in, nod your head and think yup, dirty drug dealers.  Our super nice landlords did inform us while we were looking at the place that the last people they rented to turned out to be drug dealers.  They said they had no idea when renting to them and not even while they were living here.  They were a nice, clean looking family and it wasn't till a neighbour called them to inform them that high school students from the school down the street were coming up to the house at lunch on a regular basis that the landlords got suspicious.  They were evicted but I guess didn't find all their stashes.  When we first moved in I had climbed up onto the kitchen counter to get to a hard to reach, out of the way cupboard (one that no one could reach the back of by simply standing on the ground and reaching) and found needles.  Being my sweet, naive self I thought diabetes when I first saw the needles.  When Cole came home he thought drugs.  He took them to the a disposal site and the nurse comfirmed they were drug needles. Thankfully all of them had their caps on.  So that's why when I saw the celing fan open and a baggie on the ground, my brain went to cocaine. 

Cole called the non emergency line to figure out how they would like the stuff disposed of.  They asked him to bring it in in the morning.  Cole has a cop friend he was texting last night, joking about the situation.  He asked how much coke it was and I asked Cole how many grams he thought it was (because from watching movies it seems like that's how it's measured).  We couldn't guess though- I don't have an eye for grams.  BUUUTT- I am a cook, so I told Cole it fell somewhere between an 1/8 cup and a 1/4 cup.  Then we proceeded to laugh quite hard and long about that.  Also, when I first bent down to touch the baggie when I was thinking it was baby wipes, the thought that ran through my head was that it felt like the skim milk powder I use in my breadmaker. 

Someone asked on facebook if we'll be moving.  We won't be.  We knew ahead of time drug dealers had been here before and like I said, the place is really nice for this price point.  I'm really not expecting another situation like this.  The people before us must just have forgotten about these hiding places.  Since the needles we do always look carefully in weird places if we need to reach or get into anything.  We will see how it goes.

Friday, 27 December 2013

A Few of My Favourite Things

Just a random compilation of favourites during this Christmas Season- things I'd like to remember.

In the Kitchen:

My new pan: I needed a new non stick pan so when the new Canadian Tire opened up I took advantage of the sale prices.  I picked a new pan- The Heritage Rock Non-Stick pan.  I cannot say enough good things about this pan.  It is the best non stick pan I have ever had and it's scratch proof basically because it's made of rock not that environmentally awful coating that is usually on non stick wear.  I can fry an egg with no fat and have it come up perfectly.  You can't stick anything to this rock pan.  It was an $80 pan on sale for $23 when I bought it.  I went back and got a back up to put in my closet for when I need another new one and don't want to pay $80.  But if I had to, I would.  It's that good. 


picture of the rock surface

Christmas Treats You Buy:


The Peppermint Brownie Cake Pop from Starbucks and the Gingerbread White Hot Chocolate from Tim Hortons.  My friend brought me a cake pop and it was so good I went out and bought some for the family during our Christmas Shopping Day.  So divine.  I loved the gingerbread white hot chocolate from Tim Hortons this season as well.  I'm not a huge hot chocolate fan (or hot drink in general) but really enjoyed this one. 

Christmas Treats You Make:


My top 3 Christmas recipes that I discovered this year and will be making for many more years to come:
Gingerbread Muffins with Lemon Glaze
Nutella Truffles
Homemade Turtles

Cleaning Supplies:

I'm entering into the homemade/natural cleaning supplies arena and I've started with THIS citrus vinegar all purpose cleaner.  I LOVE it.  I won't go back to buying an all purpose cleaner.  I've never had one that cleans so well.  I also love the added benefit that it's natural enough I could spritz it on my salad (I don't- but I could!).  Cole even used it on his glass desk the other day and it doesn't streak as bad as I thought it would- it didn't streak hardly at all.  I'm trying out some new recipes in the new year but this one gets my vote for the simplest.  I used lemon peel, the recipe called for orange.  I also diluted it a little more than she did- I found it too strong.  For particularly tough/dried on messes, I sprinkle some baking soda then spray the cleaner on it. 

My Husband:

Always on any favourite list of mine.  He works so hard to provide for our family and get good grades in school.  He fulfills his callings at church and tries to make sure the kids and I don't get neglected.  He is the most fun playing with the girls and is so good about helping me with whatever I need.  In particular, last Sunday, even though we were both tired, he took care of the girls and told me to nap on the couch while he tidied up .  It's not hard to still be in love with him almost 6 years later.

My Girls:

K-I can see now why so many people say speaking is their favourite milestone.  Finally, K is starting to parrot and trying lots of new words everyday.  She's never been much for speaking but these past couple weeks there has been a barrage of improvement. Specifically, I love when she giggles and calls her farts "fuff", I love when she says "no potty on 'Dot' (her word for Dora), and I love when she says "o-tee" (okay). 

B-I love seeing her sit up and reach for all her toys.  I love that she sleeps through the night now.  I love that she's liberal with her laughter and smiles.  She is so chatty and already says da-da to me and Cole.  She is always making noises and sounds and loves to "talk".  It's been fun because K was such a quiet baby. 

I love that their personalities are so different.  I love that there are different things to love about each of them.  I love that I felt I recognized K when she was born and have related to a lot of what I see emerge in her and I love B for exactly the opposite reason.  I love that I didn't recognize her-she brings a lot of different qualities to the party and I love discovering them.  She is so open and full of feelings that continuously pour out in dramatic ways. 

These are a few of my favourite things...

Christmas 2013

Our girls woke up sometime between 7 and 730, which I thought was quite respectable for their age.  I put breakfast in the oven (Cinnamon Bread and Hashbrown Casserole) and we all opened stockings and presents.  We did Cole's tradition of having a "Santa" (K) who picks a present from the jumbled mix under the tree and hands it to the person to whom it's addressed.  Some of the highlights included K's Hug Me Elmo (from Grandpa), Cole's guitalele (a guitar the size of a ukelele), my kitchen gear, and B's crib toy.  K was more excited this year than last, and was quite engaged with the whole process.  B was well behaved and sat on the couch playing with whatever she could reach.  We had breakfast after and then proceeded to relax...all day long.  It was a really nice, low key Christmas.  Cole and I are very grateful for our beautiful girls with whom we get to spend every Christmas.  We loved being in our own home and spending some quality, unstructured time together and LOVED the break from school.  The time together helped us feel the spirit of the season, celebrating our Savior. 

Oh- also, I received a Christmas present from my Grandma in the mail earlier this month.  It was a beautiful new apron.  She is so talented.  Both my grandparents are masters of their crafts.  I hear there's a matching apron for K on the way. 




We didn't do a turkey dinner this year  because we did the big appetizer night on Christmas Eve and I also we aren't huge fans of the big turkey dinner.  I did make a delicious beef stew that once again I forgot to take pictures of.  Here's my blog link and here's the original Rachael Ray recipe (mine is slightly altered- but hers has a picture).  It was lovely. 

Cole went to bed relatively early as he was planning on going to Future Shop for Boxing Day (he needed a new computer and a few other electronics that had died on us).  This meant I got to stay up and peacefully watch the Downton Abbey Christmas Special.  I thought I would fall asleep but I remained wide awake until 1230 when I finished it (it was 90 mins long).  It was fun to see Paul Giamatti guest star.

Cole was successful at Future Shop.  He showed up before 6am and was home by 730am before I was even out of bed.  He got a new laptop, sound bar for our TV, bluray player and phone (all things that were needing replacing anyways- waiting till Boxing Day meant awesome prices).  This means I get to inherit Cole's old laptop.  So Happy Boxing Day to both of us! 

We spent the afternoon at Beban Park letting K run off her holiday energy (waay too much chocolate in this little girl). 
stockings


playing with K's sparkly bracelets

candy necklace from stocking

always full of smiles


B's crib toy

Hug Me Elmo from Grandpa





"Scout" from Grandpa



Cole's new Oilers wear (toque and sweater)

guitalele

new Dora panties- um..SO CUTE!

Dora slippers

our super casual/don't wear real clothes Christmas

From the Sunday before Christmas after church