Merry Christmas!

Look Mom, I'm updating my blog!! ;)

Hopefully you enjoyed, or maybe are still enjoying, a great Christmas!  It's Boxing Day today, so we're doing our little routine of cleaning up and purging the house of extras from the last few months... along with the boxes, wrapping, and packaging from all the gifts.  It's a bit of a lazy day,  but also a lot of work ... which is why this is the perfect time to update my blog!  (it's just a short break from the work, I promise!) 

As usual, we were overly spoiled everywhere!  At my inlaws on Christmas Eve,  Zach came home with an Andrew Ladd's Jets Jersey that will have to be peeled off of him long enough to launder once a week, and Brad came home with some smaller items, like Lego and a Canucks toque ... plus clothing for both, and lots of little goodies in their stockings!

 I was gifted an Edward Barbie Doll (lol!!), which was absolutely perfect since Bella had been given ALL the Disney Princess dolls, but had no Prince Charming! So much to the horror of Dustin's brother, I opened up the "collector's edition" Edward (really, it's not that rare!) and showed Bella how he could dance with the Princesses, compliment their outfits, and even bite their necks ... er... kiss them.  She thought it was absolutely wonderful!

 Christmas Morning at home had Dustin up at 7:30am...  he's like a little kid Christmas morning, which I find completely charming, except Christmas Morning!  We woke our kids to open gifts! When does that ever happen? 

Anyway, the spoiling continued, and we all received exactly what we had wanted ... and then some!

  

Later that afternoon, we headed over to my parents.  My boys got remote control cars (with Touch Screen remotes!) and all kinds of fun stuff there again.   I'd like to say that had fun running around with their cousin Emma, but other than to eat and for the photo below, I dont think any of those three little bums left the couch in the family room!  New DS games consumed them all! ;)

 And that was our Christmas! Now we focus back to working on the house (which is coming along beautifully I might add!) and preparing for our family vacation (California at the end of January!)!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well, and wish you all the best in the New Year!!

Christmas Season

Ah, it's in the air already!  The Christmas season!
When do you set up your tree?  Our tree goes up at different times each year, although I usually try to wait until late November.  Not this year though.  The boys had a 4 day weekend over Rememberance Day, so the Monday that was off we decorated the house.  We actually set up 2 trees this year, one in each living room.
The next weekend we started some baking.  I have a recipe that my Oma, my Mom, Aunts and Cousins on her side make, and now I make it as well.  It's a German Spice cookie called Speculaas.  (Good luck with the pronounciation!) The cookies sit in a container with a Macintosh apple for a week or two after they are baked.  They take on the hint of apple flavor, and along with the spices in them, they are probably our favorite!

Then, just today I made 'Oreos'.  It's a recipe I got from a friend only last year, and they dont really need to be only Christmas cookies, but tinting the icing to red and green certainly makes them feel Christmassy.  My boys have been reminding me all month that I need to make them!  Most I will freeze until later into December, but i left a couple out for an after school snack today...I'm sure they'll be thrilled!

 Cutting out the Speculaas cookies

 

The Oreo Cookies

Along with the Christmas season comes the SNOW.  I'd like to write it as S#%W, since it's as much a swear word as any to me, but I know that without it, it wouldn't feel like Christmas already.  So I'll suck it up and keep my complaining for after December 25th. ;)
Anyway, with the snow comes winter sports...Dustin is working on a BIG ice rink for the boys (hopefully it'll be ready by New Years... my brother and family usually come down that day, it would be fun for the kids!) and there are snowmobile tracks across our grass already.
Brad's class went Curling this week, which is a new sport to this family.  As part of his gym class, he is going a few times over the next few weeks. I was able to go with his class yesterday, and I gotta say, his co-ordination "throwing" the rock does not comes from his mother!  He did really well, and came away saying he loves Curling!

"You Say 'Obsessed' Like It's a BAD thing!"

Does anyone know the significance of Nov. 17th last week?  If you are a fellow "Twi-hard" you'd know that it was the first chance we had to go see the new installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn Pt 1!

Since this blog is called 'CONFESSIONS of a stay home mom', I should probably come clean and tell you all that I really really really enjoy the Twilight books and movies...you could even say I'm a little obsessed.
We (friends and I) have been waiting for over a year to see this movie! (and will have to wait another year to see Part 2.) 
It was such a fun evening out, although it was pretty late and I found it hard to do anything the next day!  The movie started at 10pm, but we left home around 6, got to the theatre around 7 and then waited in line.  Luckily, one friend had snagged tickets online weeks ago, so we were in line for good seats together, but didn't worry about getting one at all.  And we did all manage to sit together with decent seats (there were 4 of us) so it was a  big success.

We got home around 1:30am (gotta love coming home when it's snowing!) and I got to bed around 2:00, but didn't fall asleep until well after 3am (not with all those fresh scenes of Edward, Bella, and Jacob floating around in my mind! ... plus the $5 Coke I had at midnight! ;).  Then I woke with a coughing fit at 5am (I had such a bad cold!) and was up for another hour or so.  The 7:40am alarm was absolutely brutal!
BUT, I'd totally go again in a heartbeat!

The movie was everything we had hoped for, not losing too much of the book, but adding some fun stuff as well.  Personally, I think it's my favorite in the series so far... until the next one comes out, the last half of Breaking Dawn is my favorite in the books - so I have high hopes for the movie!

Dustin was helping me kill time in line by texting with me, and he asked me to send pictures ... so I have a few from the evening.  Enjoy!

Andrea and I, in line killing time...

 My $5 Coke with a collectors cup to keep....totally worth $5!! lol!

I've gone Iphone

I dont think I really need to say more - except to give my amazing hunny some recognition.
I've been asking for an iphone for months now... totally not really expecting to get one b/c the cell phone I had was totally good enough, albeit slow, incompatible with my computer, and randomly shut off on a whim, but good enough.
Well, "as a token of his love for me" (his words even!!) Dustin surprised me with an iphone one random day.  When I asked what the occasion was, he said "Happy Thursday!"

I cant wait for next Thursday! ;)

Mess the Dress

A while back, like beginning of summer kind of while back, a friend and I decided that we were going to do our own Mess the Dress pictures.  Only we were both too sentimental about our own wedding gowns, and honestly, neither of us had the figure we did back before we were blessed with children.  So, being about the same size, we bought one online for super cheap and split the cost.  We both then wore that dress for our little photo shoot, which finally happened this fall.
Man, what a blast!!  We spent all day laughing and getting creative (and shivering, it was pretty cold!) and both have gorgeous pictures as a result!
Part of me wishes these were my real wedding pictures - I just need Dustin in them!! ;)

Here's a sampling of my favorites from my turn in the dress...

 This is one of my favorites, it's so Twilighty - and I love Twilight!

 My friend makes these headbands - so super cute!

Thanksgiving weekend

It was not the normal Thanksgiving weekend this year. Due to fires in the area, my parents were evacuated from their home on Friday evening. They (along with 3 dogs), and my sister came and stayed at our place.
Dustin and I were obviously not expecting company for night and rushed to clean up and make up 3 extra places to sleep (I had been uptown when Dustin texted me that my parents were on their way!), along with clean up the garage for the extra dogs.
Thankfully, their house was fine and they were allowed to go home again the next day ... and if they'd had power, we would have kept Thanksgiving there as planned.
The power came on mid afternoon, but by then, the turkey was cooking in my oven (which Dustin prepared - and it was wonderfully moist and yummy!), and the rest of my family had come to join us at our place.

We celebrated all the October birthdays; Zach's, my brother's, my Oma's, and my sister-in-law's, and I think despite the oddness of why it was at our place this year, we all seemed to enjoy the afternoon. After all, Thanksgiving is about being with the people you love.

The goalie pads and stick my parents got for Zach for his birthday

Licking off the beaters after whipping the cream... lol!

My hunny, doing a fabulous job carving the turkey

October Birthdays!

On Sunday, we went to Dustin's parents.
With a hayride in the afternoon, and the first ever Jets game (of the new team), it was a nice relaxing day.
Of course, we celebrated Zach's birthday with this side of the family as well. And he had a blast, yet again!

Brad (with Grampa supervising) drove the old Cockshot for the hayride.
He did a great job!

3 little munchkins! They are so cute!

Jets teeshirts for his birthday ... um, yes please!!

Blowing out the candles - with his nose. Gross.

Zach's birthday party

Since Zach's actual birthday was on Thanksgiving Day (Monday), we had his party a week early so his friends from school could actually make it.
He had a sports theme to it, which was super simple for me. Games were easy; football, soccer, etc.
The boys started with tackle football, but after the first injury, I questioned if that's how they played at school, and was told very seriously that they would all get 'pink slips' (bad ones!) if they did!
So that's what I told them I'd do too! lol! Even 2-hand-touch was pretty rough, with some accidental pushing and such. But all had a great time!

Because I "CAN"

I think I stole the 'Bernardin' sloggan using that title. Oh well. I love their products!! There, hopefully no lawsuits will transpire... ;)

I didn't get to have a garden this year. I know, poor me, right?? Thanks for feeling my pain. Plans are in the works to have a spot prepared and dirt brought in this fall so we can have a large one next year, so I'm pretty excited!

This year, I have been blessed by friends and my Mom for fresh produce, which has left me busy in my kitchen already. I wonder what it'll be like next year when I hopefully have LOTS from our own garden?! Yikes! Good thing we have that big cold storage room in the basement!

Our own yard has supplied us with apples. Lots and Lots of apples!! We have 3 different kinds here. Oh yeah, plus I claimed the unwanted apples at my in-laws place! Half of those I gave to a friend looking for some, and the other half I chopped and prepared for pies and crips throughout the winter, and froze in portion sizes.
So what was I going to do with all the apples from our own yard?! JUICE! I know, I totally feel like Betty Crocker's twin or something. I'm a first year juicer. A total newbie at this. So I picked the brains of my friend's mom and a lady at women's group in church, and then just went for it.
I can't believe it's a simple as it is!

Now, as always, I had great intentions of taking pictures all through the process, just like my friend Sharon does on her blog - I love her blog by the way, she's always inspiring - totally off topic though. Obviously, I didn't get all those pictures since I'm writing this, because once the juice was hot and my jars were ready, the camera was the last thing I was thinking of. Sorry, it sounds like blasphemy saying something like that, because I have such love of photos, but not scalding myself on steam, or pouring boiling liquid on my hand was a little more pressing right that second.
I'm totally sure you'll all forgive me.

So not only did I juice apples, I juiced grapes as well! A friend of mine had too many and offered us some. Concord grapes! WOW! They are DELICIOUS! I'm so planting a vine of my own next year! The grapes themselves look like blueberries, and dye pretty well anything the come into contact with blue (my kids mouths were pretty funny!) but the juice is just so amazing we dont care.

For apple juice, I sliced and boiled them in enough water to cover. Let them sit for 24 hours and then strained the apple mush out. Boil the water (which is now juice!) with a little bit of sugar and can it. VOILA! Seriously, how easy is that?!

The grapes, I cooked down in a bit of water, and then ran through a fruit press that my mom had lent me (what's it actually called Mom?) and then added the strained mixture back to the pot. Add a little sugar, bring it to a boil, and can it. It's almost a joke how simple it is.... but tastes so good!

Our yard also gave us ridiculous amounts of chokecherries, which until now, I had washed and put in the freezer because I didn't know what to do with them! They have pits almost the size of the whole berry, so other than jelly (which we dont care for - we're jam people here) I just had no use for them. BUT, I couldn't just leave them on the tree either! That's a waste. Well, needless to say, I'm going to juice them too! If I add enough sugar, I've hear it's really good.
It's worth trying!

Here's a sample of the apples I juiced. I had about 5 times this amount in the beginning.

Boiling them

Ooooh, new jars! It's going to turn into an addiction yet, I know it! It was like buying new paper! I just love getting new jars!! (new for me, I did a combination of new and from the MCC.) Is that weird?!

Some of the finished product we'll be enjoying for a while. Brad cant' wait for Christmas to make apple cider with this juice!

Road Trip!!

I have to admit, it was an incredibly looooong day going to Saskatchewan with Dustin to drop off some material for a house the company he works for built. 5 hours there, and then 5 hours back, and of course, in one day.
At first we thought we'd take the boys with, but then had the brain wave to ask my parents if they would take them for a sleepover the night before and the day we were traveling. They were more than happy to spend some time with their grandsons, which made the day traveling much more enjoyable for us, as well as my boys. They were super happy to hear they got to go to Oma and Opa's instead of sitting in the truck all day! (thanks again Mom and Dad!)

Driving, driving, driving

So Dustin and I left at 6:30am (yes, I was up that early! Mark it on your calendars, it doesn't happen often!) and got to Carlyle, SK just after 12:30pm. We took the #2 hwy, which I'd never been down before, and saw some really cute little towns along the way.
I had come along with the expectation of helping to unload the material (and keep my sweet hubby company) but wasn't needed when the home owner and some of his friends helped unload instead.
After dropping off the material, we went to grab some lunch. Now, Dustin is a big fan of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", a tv show that goes around and finds the best food at sometimes the least likely places. So we set out to find a diner style place to eat.
The first we went into was called '8Words', and it served soup and sandwiches. It was beautifully modern and trendy looking and seemed very nice. Not what we were really looking for though, so we walked across the stress to a Canadian/Chinese restaurant. It looked straight out of the 70's once we got inside. Perfect!
We sat down and the "waitress" (she was in sweatpants, and looked like she just crawled out of bed. I assume she was the waitress at least) came and took our drink order (pepsi's). She returned and threw the staws on the table (no exaggeration, she threw them) and plunked down our cans. Then Dustin told her he'd have the buffet, and I asked for a Cheeseburger. She gargled out a reply as she marched away that left us staring at each other wondering what in the world did she think I ordered ??.
Dustin double checked next time she walked by that it was just a single order for the burger and we got the same gargled response. At this point, we were just about dying laughing.
The buffet was not good (sorry, but I can't think of anything kind to say here, so I'll leave it at that) but we were lucky my burger was MASSIVE and we ended up sharing that and the HUGE pile of fries it came with (after avoiding the cultery the waitress threw onto the table too!) and it was actually a very good burger.
Dustin noticed the ketchup bottle and asked what the expiration date said. It was sometime in 2009! Now, I'm sure they just refilled the bottle over and over again because the ketchup tasted totally fine- but they should have washed the label off too. It was peeling and had grease spots where the paper was missing, and little black dots all over it that suggested mould.
I begged Dustin to take a picture of it, but he didn't.
Good thing is we walked away full, and laughing at how this place would never be on the "DDD" show!

On the way home, we stopped in Souris MB. What a cool little town! It had some amazing architecture in the old homes and museums that I absolutely fell in love with!

Peacocks walking around town in Souris

A butterfly museum. Lots of the houses looked like this too!

We had hoped to see the 'Longest Suspension Bridge' in Canada, but unfortunatley, it had been taken down when the flood waters were so high in spring. Too bad, it would have been good to walk along it to scrape the dog poo off my shoe that I stepped in along the trail to the bridge. (lol - for real!)

I rotated this picture on my computer, but it wont upload right on here. You get the point though right? This was before I got back into the truck. I was making sure I'd scuffed my feet on the pavement enough! lol!

We got home from this little road trip around 8pm (this includes getting the boys from my parents') with having put on 940kms to the truck.
It was a fun (albiet boring at times) date for Dustin and me - I'm really glad I went along!

This is what my kids got to do while we were away. MUCH more fun than sitting the back of the truck!

S'Mores!

Yesterday evening, I went grocery shopping without the boys. It was such a nice little break from them! It sounds silly, because this summer has been wonderful with them, but even a wonderful summer needs it's down times. Especially for this Mom.

My friend had told me about these S'more kits that the grocery store had, everything you need to enjoy a traditional s'more is included (except the fire, lol), so I scoured the store for them ... finally the manager found them for me, but not after trying to tell me they didn't have them anymore. I'm sure lots of you can figure out which grocery store I went to just from that ... the one with EXCEPTIONAL customer service - right? (insert 'eye roll' here) Oh well, I did get them in the end. I bought 2 actually so we'll have one for Fall.

Why was this kit so important to me? Well, I realized that my boys have never had s'mores before! Not the real, over-the-fire kind. And I personally hadn't had them since I was a kid! So that means that Dustin hasn't had them in our married life either (that I know of - maybe he's out making fires and eating s'mores while I sleep?? Not sure.)
And being at the time where we are in the summer holidays- something new is always welcome!

We had quite the fun evening with our gooey, sugary snack. They were an absolute hit! And the best part is the kits are plenty big enough for a couple of fires.
I had my little point and shoot camera out with me (naturally) and snapped these pictures ...
Enjoy!

Just add the marshmallow & top cracker

Such a sticky mess! The loved it!

This picture makes me laugh; Orange-One thought he was being so sneaky...

Playing Air-Guitar with Sophie. Thanks goodness she's so patient with Zach!

So mesmerizing, even in a picture.